The Northcote Arms, E10

Not too far a walk from Leyton station, this is a nice backstreet community pub that places an emphasis on serving good beer from local breweries. The pub has a multiple room interior which has now sadly been knocked about a fair bit, leaving it in a limbo state somewhere between separate rooms and open plan. A corner entrance leads you into the main bar area which is bare boarded and has some nice leaded windows down two sides of the room. There’s a small stage to the right of the entrance, perhaps used for live music, whilst pew and chair seating runs along the left-hand wall with a big blackboard at the far end which lists the pub’s numerous upcoming events. The bar is over to the rear right and has a long, curved counter broken part-way along by a small pillar, whilst the bar back now comprises a small island in the middle of the serving area thanks to the removal of a large section to allow you to see through to the rear bar. The right-hand wall has tongue and groove panelling and has been covered in a large number of portraits, although I wasn’t clear on the significance of the various subjects, and this is all topped off by three highly decorative stained-glass windows which are a great eye-catching feature. A doorway leads through to a lounge-style bar with carpeting, floral pattern wallpaper and some comfy looking chairs. The room narrows as it passes the bar, partly thanks to a staircase that intrudes into the room on the opposite wall, creating a bit of an unfortunate pinch point. Moving on, you reach an opened out rear space, similarly decorated but with more seating and its own access to the bar. Music was playing quietly in the background on a Saturday evening visit and surprisingly there were quite a few kids in the rear bar when I arrived a little after 7pm. The bar supports five handpulls but two of these were unclipped, leaving a choice of Three Sods Dark Magus, Signature Brew Roadie and Howling Hops Tropical Deluxe plus a few interesting craft keg options. The Dark Magus was £4.00 a pint but poured rather flat, despite the best efforts of the friendly barman. Thankfully it still tasted reasonably good and I think I’ll just have to chalk that one up to bad luck. This is a nice pub that seems to have plenty going for it and is popular with the locals as a result. The dubious beer seems to have been a bit of an anomaly, so I’m prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt on that and suggest that this is worth the short detour from Leyton High Road to visit.

There were four ales on in here - the ELB pair of Cowcatcher and Foundation, plus Five Points XPA and Signature Brew Roadie. I had the Foundation which was in great shape, and my companions had other ales about which they raised no complaints. The 15% CAMRA discount brought the price of a pint down to less than £3.50, which is good going for London. I saw a menu advertising something called "Burger Bills", and at £3 or so for a burger I would hazard a guess that they may be more like sliders than burgers at that price, but we didn't partake so can't say for sure. The interior still contains many original features, although quite a few changes have been made since its days of Victorian glory. The old public bar is on the left, has modern replacement boards, and with an original screen separating it from the old saloon bar on the right. This screen is mainly matchboard panelled, has a doorway (but no door now) with three glazed panels above featuring the Victorian favourite of small birds at their centre. There is also a delightful small baffle on the bar counter side of the screen with four small glazed panels featuring floral designs and a small bird. Original stained glass panels survive in the upper protions of many of the outer windows; these have mainly floral-themed small panels, again with small birds in the central roundels. The bar counter also looks to be original, but like almost everything else in here is painted either light grey or lavender. There is a further room at the back on the right, reached via the saloon bar through a large wood-framed archway. This in turn leads to another small room that seems to be used as a children's play area - it was in noisy use during our visit and I would speculate is an area best avoided. We liked this pub a lot. Good real ale at very competetive prices (especially if a CAMRA member) goes a long way to making this a destination pub. I'm not surprised it's in the GBG. I'm sure to visit here again sometime.