The Black Lion, Plaistow, E13

The Black Lion is essentially the same as when the previous reviewer visited it over five years ago. I too entered via the door on the right, into a very small room, or a lobby as described by JB, with a banquette and a few chairs. Up a couple of steps on the left takes you into a ribbon of a room with a long upholstered bench by the window, accompanied by a rank of small round tables and small stools. The bar counter has a nice fielded wood panelled front, but this room is very faux rustic with black posts and beams on the walls and ceiling, and with a rough plastered ceiling. It's been a while since Plaistow's been anywhere the countryside. There were a couple of TVs on in the bar, one showing some horse racing and the other tuned (but muted) to some sports channel, but more encouragingly a row of pump clips was displayed on the beam above the counter. There looks to be an Irish influence here, with a couple of Bushmills advertisements displayed, a sign pointing to Killarney, another sign saying "failte", plus some of those ridiculous green-rimmed Guinness hats behind the bar presumably awaiting St Patrick's Day. One piece of unusual decor in here was the row of (presumably empty) whisky (and whiskey) boxes on a shelf beneath the window. There's another completely separate room on the left, seemingly called "The Stable Bar", which I glimpsed across the servery. I'm not sure if it was open when I was in on Friday afternoon; at least it didn't seem to be accessible from outside. A chalkboard at the end of the bar counter listed the available ales as Doom Bar (£1.85 a half), Courage Best, Woodforde Wherry, and Truman's Blindside, but only the first two were available in the main bar (with two handpumps unclipped). Mayber the other two were available in the Stable Bar - I didn't ask. Food was available at very reasonable prices. Sandwiches were £2.80 a pop, with hot stuff essentially being pub grub, with the "old favourites" list containing staples like steak & ale pie (£6.80), and double sausage, egg & chips (£4.90). This is a real pub. Although it does food it's a million miles from being a gastropub. This is probably the best pub in Plaistow, but I have to say that that isn't saying a great deal.

Entered main bar to friendly welcome & 3 handpumps, but just one clipped – courage. Fortunately a chalkboard at far end of bar announced ‘today's guest beers', served from three pumps in other bar, albeit Bombardier, Deuchars (yawn), but also Summer Virgin from Brentwood Brewing Co. (new to me), tho all at £3.20 seemed a bit steep round here. If you enter via the far door (from tube) there is a small seating area (near loos) before going up a coupla steps to the bar proper, lowish beamed ceiling, open brick surround, wood floor and long curved wood bar with room for a dozen well-spaced bar stools, opposite a row of tables with stools & long cushioned banquette below part-coloured windows to street. End of bar also carries sign stating ‘to beer garden and quiet bar' and access is thru the bar servery itself (tho ‘quiet bar' does also have separate street entrance). Here is well furnished bar room with more banquettes winding around 8 tables, open to smaller servery, and a plasma supplements the 3 in the main bar. A longer list of guest beers, with those currently ‘on' being ticked, Robinsons & Mighty Oak were the more interesting possibles among mainstreams such as Adnams, pity I caught a day with less variety.

Situated in Plaistow High Street, The Black Lion is a 16th Century former coaching inn that is immediately noticeable as looking much older than the surrounding buildings. The main bar is up several steps from a smallish lobby and features a low beamed ceiling, a longish curved bar and fixed banquette seating. In this main bar, by the far door, is a framed newspaper article written by Harry Redknapp relating how, when he was a West Ham player, the players used to come here after games up the road at nearby Upton Park. Another newspaper snippet tells us that the pub used to be a haunt of smugglers when the pub was on the edge of the Essex marshland. Several plasma TV screens in this bar were showing horse racing and golf. A separate "quiet bar", which can be accessed through the bar servery, or via a separate street entrance, is more comfortable and features patterned leaded windows. In this bar, a blackboard lists the real ales on offer. At the back is a largish beer garden which can be accessed from the quiet bar or through a separate sturdy looking black oak door, which I presume is the original cobbled coach yard entrance. As you walk down to the beer garden, you pass the headquarters of West Ham Boys Boxing Club where Barry McGuigan ( a portrait of whom hangs in the quiet bar ) and Nigel Benn, inter alia, used to train. Opposite the Boxing Club is a function room, where, allegedly, Dick Turpin used to stable Black Bess. Some of the bench seats in the beer garden have seen better days and I'm afraid the garden does look a bit neglected. The pub is run by an affable and welcoming Irishman who, on my recent Sunday lunchtime visit, came over and started to talk to me about the pub and its history. The pub displays an isolated Guinness poster and an Irish road sign, but this is certainly not an "Oirish" pub and the Irish influence is not overplayed. It's a former Courage pub and the old cockerel sign is displayed on one of the beams in the main bar. Beers on were Adnams Bitter, Courage Best, Young's Kew Gold and Northumbrian Bucking Fastard. The blackboard in the quiet bar indicated that other Northumbrian beers either had been on or would be coming shortly. The Adnams was in good form, but I might have expected it to be a bit cheaper than £ 3.20p in this area of London. The pub was in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide for 2009 and was displaying a poster for the forthcoming GBBF. Based on my visit however, I'm doubtful if there's a lot of real ale trade here. It's a bit of a trek to get out here if you're not from the immediate area, but I think it's well worth it.

Randomness Guide to London - Black Lion entry

Randomness Guide to London - Black Lion entry

Official site of the Black Lion, contains menu - www.blacklionplaistow.co.uk

This place is an old coaching inn so there is quite a bit of land attached to the pub meaning there is a nice sized beer garden at the back of the property and also a car park. One of the buildings on the site is used by West Ham Boys Amateur Boxing Club and at the rear of the pub there is a separate function room that is available for hire. This inside of the pub has an olde world and there are various knick-knacks up on the walls. The main bar area is at the front and I counted three TV screens, two of which were showing horse racing and the other a World Cup match. Access is gained to the ‘quiet’ bar at the rear by shimmying through the bar hatch and through a door. There is a plasma screen in here, which was off, and yes it was peaceful enough to read a newspaper. Courage Best, Doom Bar, Broadside and Maldon Gold were all available alongside a standard draught range and I was served a very nice pint of Guinness by the friendly woman behind the bar. Food is also available from 12:00 until 14:30 and 17:00 until 19:30. It was a pleasant surprise to find this place and I would recommend to others.

Official site of the Black Lion, contains menu - www.blacklionplaistow.co.uk