The White Lion of Mortimer, Mitcham

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.

The White Lion of Mortimer is situated on the pedestrianised area and it looks very different from the outside with unusuall brickwork. Once inside it is just like most spoons but on a smaller scale,there were loads of normal tables and chairs which always seem a bit uncomfortable in most Spoons i visit. There was a decent choice of real ales on the bar and i had a drink of Spitfire which was a decent enough drink. The pub was fairly busy late afternoon probably because there is not that much competition in the middle of Mitcham. Pub visited 7/1/2006