The White Lion of Mortimer, Mitcham

Visited 24/08/26 No cask. Two sets of five hand pumps looking like they have not dispensed in years. Keg offering of Moretti, Neck Oil, Fosters, Guinness, Carlsberg, original and dark fruits SB, John Smiths, K1664. The multitude of hand pulls made sense when I read the previous reviews after my visit to learn that it used to be a JDW! Really grand pub. Bare boarded with bar counter along the left-hand wall and on a tile skirt. High ceilings and a sky light in the middle of the middle part of the venue and a much larger skylight in the rear room - extension of the front part rather than a separate room. The rear space is quite sizeable and leads out to a rear paved beer garden with traditional picnic benches and has regular tables and chairs plus quite a few brown leather studded sofas and a log burner on the rear wall. Several TVs were tuned into Sky Sports News or Racing TV and there was a heavy beat pop soundtrack being blasted out over the top of the TV commentaries. Regular tables and chairs around the front part and middle opposite the bar counter plus some mid blue leather studded banquettes along some parts of the right-hand wall serving regular tables. There is a dartboard in the space in the front left-hand corner ahead of the start of the bar counter. Very patriotic venue, largest number of England flags I have ever seen at a pub, and that is just inside!

This is a fairly comfortable Wetherspoon's which has got a quieter rear area and I have visited quite often but as yesterday I have never had a decent pint here.

I don't recall visiting Mitcham since doing the 135 Young's pub tour almost 40 years ago. In those days there were three of the better SW London Young's Houses here. The surviving King's Arms is almost opposite. This place was formerly the Buck's Head, a pub that is said to have had a dodgy reputation. The first edition of Real Beer in South West London reveals it was a Charrington's house that hosted Rock Bands. In my experience converted pubs make for better Spoons than the usual shop or office conversions and this place is no exception. It's a large barn of a pub with lots of original features such as a tiled floor around the bar and a decorative ceiling. There is a dart board and a beer garden of sorts. I certainly wouldn't call it a "typical" Spoons, which the other three I visited this day definitely were. The beer selection was a big disappointment, there were 10 pumps of which four were taken by the two GK usual suspects, two were "Available Soon" and one was wasted by the boring Doombar priced at 30p more than the legitimate guest ales. This left a choice between Salopian Darwin's Origin, Acorn Madness and Young's Special. I felt compelled to ignore the obvious two choices and give the Young's Special (£2.15) a go as I don't believe I've actually tried it since it moved to Bedford. It was in good nick but seemed far too sweet. This is one of the better Spoons, but the beer selection today let it down.