The Kings Head, Chingford Green, E4

First visit to this pub at the top of Kings Head Hill for many a moon, well nearly 20 years to be precise. Today it’s a completely different pub to my remembrances and I have obviously missed several renovations and refurbs over recent years. Apparently it really changed about 10 years ago when taken over by Ember Inns but today it is part of the Stonegate pub chain as one of their Classic Inns brand. Internally it still has that Ember Inn décor of several separate distinct areas with different floors and an eclectic collection of furniture and pastel colourings in each section which I have heard best described as an Ikea showroom with beer. Fortunately this one has a couple of nice external benched areas out back by the car park to escape to when the sun was out , as it was on my bank holiday weekend visit. I’m no great fan of the Stonegate Pub Co, primarily for their responsibility for Yates, Slug & lettuce and the god awful Scream abominations, but I have to say that at least with the Classic and Traditional pub brands, they do provide a decent choice of beers. Although with a clear focus on the food side of things the Kings Head does have ten real ale pumps round the bar providing a decent Ale selection. But this could be easily missed when entering from the car park side as what you first see is a row of four pumps providing Tribute, Doombar , Pride and Old Speckled Hen. And if you don’t venture further than here, the other bank of six would not be discovered, and for my visit four were going with much more interesting offerings from micro breweries. These were Cottage Brewery Deltic Gold, Old Dairy Spring Top and two from the East London London Fields Brewery in the shape of Love Not War and Hackney Hopster and both of these were well kept pints. So, although in no way does this make it a destination pub, it’s at least good to know that there is a decent available food menu and ale choice available here when next in the area.

Randomness Guide to London - King's Head entry

Randomness Guide to London - King's Head entry