The Royal Standard, North Woolwich, E16

Facebook page of The Royal Standard - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Royal Standard - www.facebook.com

This is quite an impressive of old pub from the outside, and inside it's also quite impressive, but not in a good way. Seeing the one door open on the left in I bowled in, whereupon I found myself in a small room with a bar counter in the corner with no pumps or fonts of any kind on it, just the beers of the handful of blokes in there drinking. Seeing an internal door on the right I surmised that it might lead to a saloon bar that could have some interesting features, and perhaps even something worth drinking. When I went in there the first thing I noticed was the electric fire on - I thought that my house was the only place that still had the heating on when the outside temperature is well into the 20s centigrade. I also saw that the windows had been blacked out, I presumed to better retain the heat from the fire. There was no real ale as I had hoped, just the usual bogstandard fizzy stuff from shiny fonts. At this point just about any PuG reviewers other than me, or Alan Winfield obviously, would have called it a day and left, but I pressed on and ordered a half of something. As I was lounging against the bar a charming young lady wearing very little in the way of clothing (now the need for the fire was apparent) sidled up to me and suggested that she might remove what little clothing she was wearing in a "dance" for my personal gratification. Obviously I said that I was here looking for real ale, and was hoping to find a handpump in this bar. She was a foreign lady and I don't think she knew what real ale was, but she smiled enigmatically in a knowing way at the mention of a handpump. At this point I retreated to the public bar to "enjoy" my half of Carling (or whatever it was) in the company of the old soaks in the public bar. I would have to say that this is a pub of two halves. I do not expect to return. It gets a 1 for being open and still there.