Prince of Wales, Belvedere

I initially tried to visit the Prince of Wales at lunchtime on my Wednesday stroll around Belvedere, but opening times have been revised to 2pm during the week. So, it ended up being the last of 3 and marginally the best of them. As I arrived, another customer was waiting outside, along with my old friend, the crisp delivery man. My 4th pub of the day and the 3rd I'd seen him in. Was he from Interpol and tracking my every move? There's another nice interior to admire here, with a central horseshoe bar and seating all around. 3 handpulls can be found at the far side of the bar from the entrance. 2 were clipped with Sharp's Doom Bar & Bexley Bursted. I'd finally found a new beer to try (not the Doom Bar). A 4th handpull was unclipped directly opposite the entrance. It looks like they no longer stock a real cider. There's clearly a good community atmosphere here, with multiple events held. However, there was no sign of food anymore. An outdoor area to the rear has recently been spruced up with new furniture to keep Boris happy.

I could certainly recognise the pub I walked into from Roger's review from over seven years ago, as it's virtually unchanged since then. It's still carpeted; the seats are still in the old chimney breasts on the right; pots, plates and the like are distributed liberally around the place hanging from beams and displayed on shelves; and seating is mostly standard tables and chairs apart from a couple of tall tables/tall stools by the windows. There's a nice old bar counter, and attractive fielded panelling on the walls which is old, but probably not original from the building of the pub. It's very "brewer's rustic" with (relatively) modern black beams on the walls interspersed with rough plastered walls. There's also a dartboard. There are three handpumps on the right of the counter (Doom Bar, Ruddles County (!), and Timothy Taylor Landlord (£3.90). The lone pump is still on the left of the counter, clipped for Rosie's Pig cider. They do food weekday lunchtimes - my chum and I had sandwiches at £4.50 a time, but they obviously do more substantial meals as there was a largish group (a dozen or so) of ladies tucking into scampi and chips or similar stuff. I really liked this pub. It had an authentic old feel to it, was comfortably furnished, food was good, and the staff were friendly. And my pint of Landlord was in excellent shape. I would be very happy to make a return visit to this one.

Built in the 1860’s this pleasant traditional style corner pub is one of the better options in the area and has always commanded a good reputation. The carpeted interior is quite small with U shaped bar and good use made of the available space (note the seats built into old chimney breasts) The décor and furnishings were all neat, tidy and presentable with plenty of cartoons, plates, brasses and books on display. There was quite vibrant atmosphere on my Sunday night visit where a lot of the other pubs nearby were virtually deserted although there was a popular fun quiz in pregress at the time. There were 3 TV’s and both Sky & ESPN sports channels were advertised. At the rear is a small patio. The beer range was more expansive than my only previous visit with Doom Bar, Youngs Ordinary and Dark Star Partridge available with a 4th pump unused despite the signage declaring that 4 ales are always available. One word of warning - there is an isolated pump on a different corner of the bar that is easily overlooked and I nearly missed out on the guest beer because of it! Overall, a very welcoming and surprisingly decent pub situated in an area where you perhaps don’t expect it.