Stormbird, Camberwell, SE5

A former Hoare’s later Charrington’s pub and originally the Artichoke, this dates from the early 19th century, rebuilt in 1883 and apparently a sister pub to the Hermits Cave opposite; oh really??? It’s well described below: bare boarded, dark grey walls, trendy prints or foreign breweriana, mixed light fittings, conventional furniture, my table covered with food remains, despite the pub not doing any. Customers were young, local professional types, in good spirits for not drinking the cask options. With about 15 taps dispensing a general mélange of crafty stuff (and Inch’s), marginalising a trio of unused pumps, then just three cask options at the time of my Saturday 9.30pm visit: Arundel Smash, Brew York’s Calmer Chameleon and Pale at £2.50 a half, served by a monosyllabic barman and completely lifeless, lacking in condition with neither lacing nor head (the beer, not barman). Far from being a destination, this place is something of a disappointment for the casketeer; the aforementioned Hermits Cave is opposite.

Official site of Stormbird - stormbirdcamberwell.com

Official site of Stormbird - stormbirdcamberwell.com

This place has been a long-term target of mine, given its regular appearance on lists of the ‘Best Pubs in London’ and its links to the pleasant Hermit’s Cave pub over the road. Having been denied entry during the pandemic due to a lack of free tables, I finally managed to check it out recently on a mini crawl from Camberwell to Brixton, but have to wonder whether it was worth the effort. The pub has a single room, open plan layout with the bar in the far rear corner and plenty of seating through the remainder of this bare boarded space. The seating is a mix of chairs, pews and canteen benches, many arranged under large windows along both sides of the street corner, which makes them good spots for a bit of people watching. The bar has a typical dark wood panelled counter and decent matching bar back decorated with interesting beer bottles, pump clips and neon light figures of a penguin, angel and deer. A beer board hangs to one side, mounted in what looks like an old frame for an honours board or similar. Shelving to the left of the bar was lined with bottles and cans, perhaps for takeaway purposes, whilst the walls were decorated with good quality enamel brewery signs, old photos of the local area and large plain mirrors. My main gripe with the place is that there are very few soft furnishings, so the room gets incredibly noisy and feels a little cold. The tables are mainly on the larger side, so as a lone visitor, I had nowhere to sit without taking a whole table for myself, and worst of all, the punters had formed a queue from the bar to the door, although I ignored this and walked to the other end of the bar, where I was served relatively quickly. The handpulls yielded three cask ales - Siren Broken Dream and Suspended in Citra, and Lost and Grounded Autumn Protagonist, along with a real cider and two unclipped pumps. The focus is more on the craft keg market, with around 15 keg taps pumping out plenty of microbrewery beers to a mainly young clientele. I took a pint of the Autumn Protagonist, which was served so cold that had I not seen the barman pour it, I might’ve thought I’d been given a pint of keg beer. I had high hopes for this place, but found it tricky to get comfortable, far too noisy and with beer kept far too cold, not to mention stupid customers practically queuing out of the door to get served. Having said that, it seemed like a popular spot with a comprehensive craft keg range and the barman who served me was a good laugh, so it wasn’t all that bad. I’d be more inclined to return to the Hermit's Cave the next time I’m in Camberwell and wouldn’t label this as the destination pub I’d been led to believe it might be.