The Rake, Borough Market, SE1

Called in on Friday but only 2 beers available. St Austell Smugglers 11.5% I believe but £6 a half. Chose the Harviestoun Old Engine Oil at a more respectable price. They do have quite a lot of foreign beers, and despite the higher prices the place was packed and buzzing with conversation.

A small bar with one wall taken up with graffiti about the beer, its a very basic place really and would be poor without the quality of the beer. Outside patio covered with an umbrella doubles the available space. Doesn't really work for me, but 2 extra marks for the beer quality.

A very small pub at the side of Borough market that had 4 real ales on which were all in very good form.It gets packed in the evening and on my visit yesterday was full wall to wall but this adds to the atmosphere.Good outside drinking area and all round a good pub for all beer lovers.

Borough Market's bottled beer specialists Utobeer have used this small, single room unit to showcase their wide range of beers from Europe and the US. The pub is decorated with an interesting collection of breweriana, including some nice metal signs from the likes of Anchor Brewery, numerous pump clips behind the bar and a Brooklyn Brewery flag hanging on the ceiling. The far wall has a number of good will messages scrawled on it by various visiting brewers and I can only imagine that by the end of the day there would have been another one added, given that my visit happened to coincide with a meet the brewer (Otley) session. As such, the three hand pumps had three Otley ales on offer. I tried a pint of the lovely, refreshing Colomb-O (£3.10), which went down a treat. As well as the pumps there were various foreign beers on tap including Blue Moon, Kaiserdom and two others. Two taps were not in use. Furthermore there are some impressively large fridges behind the bar packed full of bottled delights. The bar staff seemed very knowledgeable and were helping numerous customers find the right beer to suit their tastes. The interior is so small that there are only a small handful of high tables and stools available, but thankfully there is an outdoor decking area which was proving quite popular in the summer sunshine. The pub has various notices up explaining that football colours cannot be worn inside and that children may not enter the bar area but can sit out on the decking. A fine beer pub and something a little different to the other excellent ale houses in this part of town - I quite often find myself in this area and would certainly return.

Randomness Guide to London - Rake entry

Randomness Guide to London - Rake entry

One of Manchester’s historic pubs and a Robinson’s house. It’s always been a bit scruffy and remains so even though I think they’ve had a bit of a refurb recently. I remembered it as having a plethora of knick knacks and tat behind the bar but most of that is gone now. Also gone is the macabre mosaic which allegedly included the ashes of a long time landlady. Back in her day you’d likely get thrown out for having the temerity to ask for a pint of Old Tom, it was halves only. Lost a bit of character but still one to visit.

The Rake is one of the smallest pubs in London with an interior measuring 13’ x 7’ although they claim it can accommodate over 40 people. Just where they would go is anyones guess and if you want a seat at one of the three small circular tables, you can pretty much forget it. There isn’t even room for a Gents toilet; you have to nip out the back into the adjoining market although the ladies and wheelchair users are more fortunate with their own facilities within the pub. Since its days as the Old Kings Head, the Rake has been reinvented as a speciality beer and ale pub with an indeterminate number of bottled beers stacked up in fridges behind the bar as well as several foreign draught beers and 3 constantly changing Real Ales (Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted, Stonehenge Great Bustard & Cairngorm Trade Winds on my recent trip). The interior won’t win any prizes with quite plain décor, bare floors and bright lighting. The only things of interest are the signed graffiti messages and numerous brewery signs. The small decked, covered terrace (with heaters) virtually doubles the size of the pub however they shut the patio at 10pm at which time everyone is shepherded inside and the pub becomes insanely uncomfortably. Price wise, the ales are very reasonable (my Cairngorm Trade Winds was £3.10) although the speciality draught and bottled beers come with a more demanding price tag. Its (lack of) size makes the Rake a bit limiting for a long session but it is a thriving part of the excellent local pub scene and worth exploring in conjunction with its neighbours.