Duke of Wellington, E8

Dating from the mid-19th century, this pub was once situated on Stonebridge Common, as evidenced by the old street sign to the building’s front, along with an old Courage sign bracket. Today it looks out over a little square, often packed with young drinkers and a view beyond to Stonebridge Gardens, some tables are outside. Inside it’s a little bit different. It seems the older blokes prop up the bar here, chatting with the very friendly, old-school landlady. The place looks as if it has recently had a complete makeover: the bar structure and field panelled bar appear to be new, wood, varnished and in the Victorian style with inverted spirit bottles in optics. Lighting comes from modern Victorian-style brass sconce lights with blindingly bright ‘low energy’ bulbs, picking out the flawless burgundy walls and white ceiling. Underfoot, there’s a red and black cheap carpet which almost seems to crunch underfoot. Furniture comprises some burgundy vinyl banquettes to part of the periphery, with Britannia tables and low stools, all placed wide apart; there are tall stools to the bar. There were two TVs, one showing the football with the sound down, the other off; easy listening music played gently in the background. What little décor there is, comprises some framed prints to the walls and several sports’ trophies occupy a high shelf. The lavs were very clean, the drunk man having clearly sobered up and left the building long ago. There are now two pumps dispensing Doom Bar, costing me £5.00 for a pint of Sharp’s Atlantic, which tasted as expected. The problem with this pub is that it’s very spartan – really one for the ascetic, not helped by the bright lighting. The landlady is something of an attraction, but it doesn’t disguise the fact that this pub is very plain and ultimately below average, but I wish its devotees well.

The Duke of Wellington is a decent looking pub that is in a fairly quiet area off the busy Kingsland road. Once inside there is a single room with the bar facing,the room is carpeted and has comfy bench seating and small stools for seating,there is a pool table to the rear left. There was one real ale on the bar which was Doom Bar,this was a decent enough drink. There were TVs showing the Euro Football and the background music was crap. I quite liked this pub as it was very comfortable and the first pub on this crawl to have a pool table and a carpeted floor. Pub visited 11/6/2016

After surveying the selection of standard draught I plumped for a Guinness before having a wander around the pub. It was just after I spotted the pool table and the dartboard that I encountered one of the most drunk blokes I have ever seen in a pub. He was in his forties and he had an unopened bottle of WKD in one hand and he was using the other to try and push himself up from the wall that he had become stuck to. I walked slowly behind him as he bounced his way down the corridor at the back before crashing through the toilet door, never to be seen by my eyes again. I thought that I would make my way back towards the front of the pub to be nearer the exit in case there were more of these things rebounding of the furniture. Thankfully he was the only one in that state and the barmaid was busy mopping up the bar area to erase any evidence of his patronage. There are plasma screens dotted about the pub and they have Sky and Setanta for all of the football. I thought that for a Sunday afternoon the music was a little loud, but that is just a personal preference. I ended up finishing my pint in the smoking shelter that is located in the beer garden and it was here that I decided not to be too harsh on this pub as I quite liked it, even with the drunk who should have probably been refused service two hours prior to my visit. No ale, but nice staff and plenty to do so I would visit again if passing.

lovely pub,nice pleasant staff,nice outside drinking area,pleasant,funny haha customers.well worth a visit

A very nice and very clean pub overlooking Stonebridge Park, the irish lady behind the bar was very friendly and one of the customer was very informative. unfortunately no real ale other than that a very nice pub