The Antelope, Tooting, SW17

A good size and slightly unusually looking pub, with three arches over the ground floor and a brick façade to the upper floors, it must have been quite an impressive building in it’s heyday, although these days it could perhaps do with a little tidying up. The front bar is a good-sized, U-shaped room and quite elegant in a slightly faded sort of way, with black slate tiling on the floor, battleship grey wood panelling on the walls to the left and an unusual sea blue ceiling. Much of the sections on the wood panelling were inlaid with picture and shields, whilst a wall to the right had a large collection of plates on display. A full height wooden partition inlaid with etched glass and a door was an interesting feature. Seating was a mixture of mustard yellow padded tools at the bar, lower level green padded stools at the tables, as well as regular chairs and some banquet seating. The curved bar counter was clad with sage green wood panelling. The pub is much bigger than it initially appears, and opens out towards the read in to two further rooms. The smaller of the two was largely being used by diners on our Sunday lunchtime visit and was again quite elegant with black beams on a pale yellow ceiling, dark wood panelling on the lower part of the walls and yellow painted embossed wallpaper above. Only the floor let it down which appeared to be just some sort of rough concrete. The larger room was really quite impressive, and you could almost imagine being in a large stately home. There was again wood panelling on the lower part of the walls, and this time the ceiling was deep maroon colour, but there was a parquet wood floor which improved it considerably and what was presumably an enormous walk-in fireplace at one time, although these days it was just used for some further pew style seating. Old chandeliers hung from the ceiling and large leaded windows let in plenty of light. Only the presence of a couple of screens, one a large protector, showing the rugby detracted from the ambience. Fortunately, it’s not a case of style over substance as there was also a decent beer selection consisting of Sambrook’s Wandle, Wimbledon SW19, Twickenham Autumn Red, Volden Session, Volden Pale, Sharp’s Solar Wave and Jaipur IPA. Ciders meanwhile were Aspall’s and Rosie’s Pig. Overall, quite an impressive pub, and with a bit of TLC it could really be quite something.

This is a late Victorian pub, originally known as the Foresters and on CAMRA’s inventory of having an interior of Regional Importance; I suspect that this pub isn’t the 1870s’ original though, still sporting an unused Courage sign bracket. I’d not been to Tooting before, but think of it as an old friend from having watched Citizen Smith in the late ‘70s. This has a rather fine interior indeed, which probably explains why owner Antic hasn’t dynamited it. Unfortunately, Antic don’t have the imagination to capitalise on the interior, as there are no pictures of it on the website. Suffice to say, this must have been quite some gin palace in its day, with a good wood panelled floor, there’s an ornate flying bar back with a Barclays backlit parapet. This is exceptionally rare, possibly unique; the Turin Shroud of old brewery regalia. There’s some very fine Art Nouveau etched glass to select windows. A royal blue Anaglypta ceiling complements walls which are either plain or panelled, painted pale grey. Décor comes in the form of coats of arms to walls, mounted patterned plates and a stuffed deer’s head; furniture is somewhat modern and comfy, with peripheral banquettes. It would seem that this large room must comprise the bulk of the pub, but not a bit of it as there’s a substantial plain wood panelled dining room to the rear, but then a massive similarly attired room to the left, seemingly devoted to football, dimly lit with a megavision screen and probably once a billiard room. Customers were a mixed bunch, many supping in the fairly large beer garden. There was Old Rosie cider (not considered ‘real’ by CAMRA), then three unused pumps, thereafter Volden Pale, Volden Session at a remarkable £3.30 a pint, Wandle and Jaipur, £2.60 a half and very nice, served by an even nicer barmaid. This was easily the best of my seven-pub mini crawl. Miles better than the Long Room down the road, this is a must-visit if in Wandsworth and certainly an asset for the residents of Tooting; power to the people!

Official site of The Antelope - theantelopepub.com

Official site of The Antelope - theantelopepub.com

Horseshoe shaped bar in a fairly large building,the interior decor is enhanced in a typical Antic way with various oddments,plates, tankards and the like as well as the odd mounted deer head. Eight handles on the bar with five on the go Sunday lunch time,Wimbledon Common, Sambrooks Wandle and American Red ale along with Thornbridge Jaipur and house beer Volden Pale, given the early hour I gave the Jaipur a swerve and had the Volden at a very reasonable £3.20 a pint. I didn't dislike it here.

Central U shaped bar served 6 real ales. Interior a mixture of formal and shabby chic styles.