White Lion, Streatham, SW16

Visited 28/05/26 No cask. Keg offering of Guinness, Amstel, Moretti, Inch's, Red Stripe, Brixton Reliance Pale Ale and the Coldharbour Lager. The White Lion only opens 5pm Thurs to Sun evenings, and the Streatham Soul Club operates here on Friday and Saturday evenings with live music and DJs. My visit on a Thurs early evening saw it operating just as a pub with piped music and no bouncers on the door and no admission fee as I suspect would be the case on a Fri and Sat evenings (guess rather than based on fact). The venue is a rectangle along the main road and is generally stone tiled with a slightly raised boarded area either end, both of which house some regular tables and chairs but also seem to double up as stage / DJ booth areas. The bar counter is against the rear wall facing the large paned glass frontage and there is some tall stool seating at the right most edge of the bar counter which was popular with some locals obviously known to the bar staff on my visit. A mixture of tall and regular tables along the window wall facing the bar counter with tall unbacked stools or regular chairs. High ceilings and a small disco ball hanging in front of the stage on the right-hand side. Large projector screen on the left-hand wall and the single TV also switched off on my visit. Instead, sound, and which was considerable, provided by a reggae soundtrack, the cover of Wish You Were Here on my arrival was indeed epic. You probably won't be here for the beer range, but a pint of Red Stripe listening to the reggae on a warm evening was most enjoyable.

It seems that this is a late Georgian pub, but the huge and ornate edifice that greets the visitor must be late Victorian or even early Edwardian, the name ‘Hobgoblin’ still visible to the parapet. The place is only open Thursday to Sunday and with removable metal railings cordoning off the entrance, guarded by three bouncers in high viz. The windows are occluded with curtains, presumably to help muffle the noise, for this in reality is the Streatham Soul Club, a dedicated live music venue. I didn’t manage to get a look beyond a chink in the front door, but could see a spinning glitter ball, hear very loud music, lapped up by what appears to be an exclusively Black crowd. Given the opening hours and usage, I think it would be a stretch to call this a pub anymore; I’m not even sure if there may be an entrance fee.

This is a large, landmark pub on Streatham’s never-ending High Street, just over the road from the local Wetherspoon and Antic pubs. You enter into a surprisingly shallow, but very wide interior with a long servery across the centre section of the back wall. The bar has a scruffy timber counter front with hardly any beer taps along its length and a complete lack of handpulls, so it all feels rather bare and superfluous – a micropub sized counter would’ve more than sufficed. The bar back has been painted in plain shades and adorned with a partly mirrored shelving unit beneath a large lion sign which matches the image on the pub sign outside. The room has a quarry stone floor with a slightly raised bare boarded space to the right. Some standard tables and chairs fill this space, fighting for room next to a DJ booth, whilst bench booths and high tables with stools run along the front wall, beneath large windows. Some of these benches have intricately carved backs that look fantastic despite the addition of some pretty ugly modern upholstery. Similar seating reappears to the left under a large lion painting surrounded by loads of fairy lights, whilst over to the right, an unusual mural can be found on the rear wall, along with a fireplace, keyboard, plain mirrors and random bits of art. There are loads of TV screens around the room, all of which remained switched off throughout my stay, in favour of a modern trap and R&B soundtrack. The lack of handpulls on the bar meant a choice between three mainstream lagers or Guinness, with the latter clocking in at a hefty £5.70 and suffering from the usual over-chilling problem. I also noticed a font for something called Caledonian Coast To Coast, which would’ve been by far the most interesting thing on the bar, had it actually been available. There were hardly any customers in when I rocked up on a Thursday evening, but I’m reliably informed that this is a different story when they put on live music or for their Streatham Soul Club nights. Sadly, my visit didn’t coincide with either of these events, so I was left with a wholly underwhelming pub visit in a depressing, lifeless space that has definitely seen better days. With no decent beer, no atmosphere and a decidedly cool welcome, there was no reason to linger for more than a quick pint and a quick snoop around – I’ll most definitely be sticking to the other side of the road the next time I’m back in Streatham. Date of visit – 18th May 2023

Official site of White Lion - www.whitelionsw16.co.uk

Official site of White Lion - www.whitelionsw16.co.uk