The Spread Eagle, Homerton, E9

Official site of The Spread Eagle - www.thespreadeaglelondon.co.uk

Official site of The Spread Eagle - www.thespreadeaglelondon.co.uk

Another grand looking pub in this part of town, the Jackdaw and Star gives the impression of having previously been pretty much the mirror image of the equally impressive Adam & Eve across the road. However, whilst the latter has retained a sense of its traditional layout and decor, this place has gone for more of a radical departure, with an opened out interior leaving a slightly forlorn looking central island servery in the middle of the room. The pub is bare boarded and the servery has a copper top and a decent collection of pump clips on the diminished bar back. The end part of the bar is surrounded by a tiled floor, with the tiling extending onto the counter front. Large windows to the front and right let in plenty of light, which given the pastel shaded walls and weird modern wallpaper, isn’t necessarily a plus point. Standard tables and chairs have been arranged under these windows, with a drinking ledge in the narrower space to the left and some comfier sofa options at the back of the room. Decor includes a number of large plain mirrors, some antique paintings and a DJ area hidden behind a faux-Victorian dressing screen. The room extends to the rear left where a fairly pleasant lounge-type area offering a few Chesterfields under gaudy wallpapered walls decorated with stuffed birds in glass cases. There is a nice stained glass skylight here and some more coloured glasswork in the rear windows which look out to a garden area. Just the two ales available here – Maregade Amber and Five Points Pale – with the latter turning out to be a good pint from a brewery that didn’t disappoint whenever encountered on our East London crawl. The place had a bit of a ‘craft beer bar’ feel to it and there were a few interesting options on the taps from the usual suspects. I thought this place was a bit of a mixed bag, as I quite enjoyed the quirky styling and well kept beer but couldn’t help thinking the place would’ve been a lot better with a more traditional look and feel. Perhaps we should be grateful that, in an area hit with countless pub closures, the place is still trading at all – it certainly worked well as part of our crawl and I’d be happy enough calling in again.

The turret above the main entrance to this corner pub is what first catches the eye, but the purple fascia name-boards lower down are rather vile. However, the remodelled interior is also a similar mixture of the appealing and the appalling, with some unusual glass-topped tables with memorabilia beneath to distract from the stuffed animals. We found two of the three handpumps in operation, offering Five Points Pale and Maregade Amber (£2.20, half).

This is another pub that has hitherto escaped my custom, despite visits to the Adam & Eve opposite. It was better than I expected it to be, with a couple of decent beers on plus a third handpump unused. It's thoroughly madeover of course, but has enough knick knacks and bric a brac about the place to keep one amused for a while. I would say that pride of place is resereved for the stuffed bird - a jackdaw presumably - in a large glass case; and my attention was also drawn to the skeletal remains of some some other animal - possibly rattus rattus - in another small case. All very intriguing. This is a comfortable enough pub, with a few armchairs and sufficient normal tables and chairs for the traditionalists among us. Although nothing very special, this is a decent enough pub with a couple of OK beers. It's certainly not worth going far out of your way to visit, but alright for a swift one.