The Gladstone, Walworth, SE17

Not the best of places, clientele and beerwise. Island bar offering keg only. Not one to come back to.

There's no real here - a below par half of Guinness was £1.70. I spotted a blackboard down at the end of the counter with some food dishes written on it, but no menus on the table and I didn't see anyone eating. This is an archetypal estate pub. There are ironwork signs above the three doors, informing us that at one time the public bar was on the left, the off sales in the centre, and the saloon Bar on the right. It's opened up now, but the left hand area of the room still has the feel of a public bar as it contains both the dartboard and the pool table. Interestingly it's clear to see the original demarcation between the rooms as the (black painted and wood framed) tiled splash area surrounding the bar counter in the saloon and public bar areas is not present where the off sales used to be. Additionally, there are vestiges attached to the bar counter of the screening that would once have separated the off sales from the other two rooms. The counter is probably original inter-war (or possibly post-war), but although the floor's bare-boarded, the front of the counter is carpetted (!) so it's not possible to see the design. There's some nice old wood paneling on the dado, but the island servery only has a small and insignificant bar back/stillion in its centre. All furnishings are normal tables and chairs. There's some outside seating at the front under a cheap-looking plastic cover. This is obviously a locals' boozer. It's comfortable enough if you like bogstandard boozers, but the beer choice is wanting to say the least.

The Gladstone is a back street pub that has one of Walworths many estates behind it. Once inside i went into a decent sized room with the bar facing,there were normal tables and chairs around the edge of the room,there was a darts board to the front left and a pool table to the rear. There were no real ales on the bar,i had a drink of John Smiths smooth crap which it was. The pub was very busy on my late Saturday afternoon visit with locals. This is not a pub to go out of your way to do like i did. Pub visited 13/9/2014