Turners Old Star, Wapping, E1

Having also picked up on the grape vine that this pub was spruced up for its film appearance in “Legends” and has since turned into a bit of a tourist attraction and now supports a couple of local brewery beers, which has increased its footfall and is now becoming a must do on the Wapping crawl, alongside the usual three riverside suspects, I detoured off the DLR to give it another look. Basically unchanged internally from my previous visits, but clearly given a bit of spit and polish for the filming, this is now a very inviting traditional east end pub interior, made even more inviting in that two of the three ale pumps were in operation with cask beers from the Hackney Forest Road brewery, namely their Ride Pale Ale and Work IPA. Even if you’ve never seen Legends it’s now well worth popping into this one if you are in the area, but if you have seen the film and are a fan, it is indeed like walking onto the set and I defy you to walk through the doors and not proclaim that you have come here for “a f**king shoot out right, a proper shoot out, with some proper men”. I believe it’s now being well run by a landlady and daughter team and both the ales were in good condition and I’m very happy to increase my rating of this one.

Great unspoilt back street boozer. I came here because of it's use in the Krays film - "Legend". It was like walking on to the set! I don't normally take pictures of an interior but couldn't resist it. As we were amongst the first customers the bar was empty. Great service from the friendly landlord. On the beer front there were 2 ales on - Southwark Brewing West Coast IPA and Happy As Larry from Heritage. I went for the latter which was fine. Well worth the visit.

Turners Old Star is a fine example of a no frills old school backstreet boozer and just the type of pub I was hoping to find during a recent midweek crawl of Wapping. The L-shaped bar area is served by an L-shaped bar counter to the right rear. Three hand pumps were drawing Southwark Brewing’s Mayflower and Borough Market Brown Ale alongside Heritage Brewing’s St Modwen Golden Ale. Standard and premium keg was also available and the food stretches to pies in a cabinet on the bar. The television was off. Six Nations bunting was wrapped around the top of the bar, so probably no Sky Sports. There was some low background music playing through some old speakers. The well-trodden floorboards lead to a room at the rear that houses a pool table and dartboard. This pub is of a dying breed so is certainly worth a look.

A rather splendid and unspoilt locals pub , unfortunately all three handpumps were barren on my visit with just a basic keg lineup available. I still enjoyed my twenty minutes or so with half a Stella taking in the authenticity of the pub and admiring some ornate woodwork on and behind the bar. Quite a rare pub nowadays and well worth a look , beer or not.