The Burn Bullock, Mitcham

This is a decent sized pub occupying a corner site on London Road and Cricket Green at Mitcham. Inside the front bar’s furnished with normal tables and chairs, and with some black and white photographs on the walls, mainly of South London scenes. There’s a large clock on the back of one of the entrance vestibules, a pool table, a juke box, and some games machines. The TV screens are still here of course, but only one was on, and that was on the bar back, showing some children’s cartoon programme with the sound on. Rather strange really, as there were only two other people in the pub, sitting at the bar chatting with the barmaid. There’s another slightly more intimate room at the back on the left of the bar counter. This room contained a handful of tables and chairs, with all the tables having an empty wine bottle on them, presumably in an attempt to convey the aura of a wine bar. I didn’t see any sign of food or menus during my midweek late lunchtime visit. There were three handpumps on the bar – one apparently unused, another with a GKIPA clip reversed, and the third inevitably dispensing London Pride (£3 a pint). It certainly seems to have improved a bit since Roger’s visit, but it’s still fairly run of the mill in my opinion. Seeing it on a dark and dismal day in December probably meant that I didn’t see it at its best, but it nonetheless seemed gloomy inside. I suspect the couple at the bar and I didn’t represent their typical customer base, and it might well be a very different place if it’s busy when they show football. But it did have one ale on, and the service from the barmaid was friendly and welcoming. However, I doubt whether I’ll visit again.

Originally the Kings Head, this pub has historically had many cricketing connections with Mitcham Cricket club little more than a large 6 hit away. The pub was run by former Surrey cricketer and Mitcham Vice President Burn Bullock until his death in the 50's and the pub was named in his honour in the 70's. The Association of Cricket Umpires was also formed here. Unfortunately the bails came off the pub many years ago and there have been many forced closures in recent years due to anti-social behaviour, most recently in September when the pub was forced to shut for a month – whether it is now open again I have no idea and I'm not in any hurry to find out. The fact that there is little quality competition nearby means that it has not had to set its standards very high to compete with its neighbours and that was certainly evident on my one and only visit after a match at nearby Tooting & Mitcham. The interior is a large knocked through L-Shape with a dark and dingy feel to it. The multi-screens, fed a diet of Premiership football to a small but vocally aggressive sounding customer base although to be fair it was probably no worse than I have encountered in many similar pubs but, whilst I didn't feel personally intimidated, I can imagine what the place would be like had I stayed for longer than necessary. Of the 3 handpumps, no ales were available (Speckled Hen and Broadside were the options with 1 pump unclipped) which displayed poor management given that this was early on a Saturday night however I suspect that there aren't too many ale drinkers that would frequent the place enough to be particularly bothered. Not really much else to say about the place other than I don't give it too many recommendations and I would expect it to become a full time victim of Britain's closed pubs problem very soon if it hasn't already done so.