The Lord Napier, Thornton Heath

The Lord Napier is a back street pub that is just up from the busy parchmore road. Once inside i went into a fairly basic room that was the bar this room was fairly busy with locals on my early dinnertime visit. This pub is a Youngs tied house and there were two real ales on the bar i had a drink of Youngs bitter and this was a nice well kept pint the other beer was Youngs Special. I was pleased to get this pub done as this and the other two youngs houses were the reason for coming to Thornton Heath. Pub visited 3/9/2005

This is a decent backstreet Young’s house and one only only a few surviving pubs in a part of town that has been blighted by pub closures. The pub has an unusual two room layout, with the entrance taking you into the main bar, whilst two doorways lead to a large live music venue at the rear. The pub calls itself ‘Britain’s leading jazz pub’ and certainly used to have a great reputation for putting on jazz concerts in the back room. I’m not sure if this is still the case, as I only spotted a couple of posters advertising upcoming events and one of those was for a comedy night. The main bar is carpeted with metal top tables, leather banquette and low stool seating and half panelled walls.The servery bears the names of a number of towns from America’s Deep South whilst the wall opposite has a large mural showing jazz musicians throught the ages. There was a rare sighting of a pinball machine (The Addams Family) as well as a table top arcade machine. A nice fireplace with an integral mirror in an intricately carved frame is positioned between the two doorways leading to the music room. This is essentially a large open space with a number of tables and low stools around the perimeter. The stage is at the back of the room and has a stand up piano on it. The dancefloor meanwhile, was occupied by a rather lonely looking pool table and there is a door at the back that leads out to the beer garden. Just the two Young’s regulars were available – Ordinary and Special (£3.20). I tried the Special which was thankfully in pretty good shape, although it was the most expensive pint I found in Thornton Heath. This is a fairly nice pub and certainly the pick of the three remaining pubs to the north of Thornton Heath station. If you’re a jazz fan and you hear of a gig here, you can at least go assured of a decent pint.