St John's Tavern, SW11

This is a smart bar and restaurant on St John's Hill, just a short walk away from Clapham Junction station. They appear to be part of the 'Lost Group' who also run Lost & Co in Putney and Ales & Tales in Twickenham, as well as a couple of other ventures nearby. This place has a compact layout and has been styled loosely as a Victorian/ colonial themed bar which sounds a bit naff but just about works. Entering via a porch with an old 'His Master's Voice' gramophone, you find yourself in a front room with dark wooden flooring, large windows folded out so as to open onto the street and a mix of bench, banquette and standard seating underneath a wall made from old doors. The servery is midway down on the right hand side, with a coffee station next to it which stands under shelves lined with trophies, some stuffed herons and a huge bird cage which hangs from the ceiling. Opposite the bar are some comfy, high, back-to-back banquettes, serving a couple of tables under a wall decorated with a strange wallpaper which depicts various birds and animals eating, drinking and playing musical instruments. Moving further into the room, there is a woodblock floored mid-section with some larger tables, a cabinet full of glassware, a smart fireplace and a remarkable old map of the world on the ceiling. Other items of interest include various salvers, mirrors and a silver rhino head sculpture. Some heavy drapes screen a lovely rear conservatory area, which appears to have retained its original Victorian structure, and offers plenty more standard seating in between various potted plants and hanging baskets, as well as having its own fireplace. A trip to the gents uncovered a display of old wooden tennis racquets which seemed a bit of a strange thing to include, although there are more of these in Ales & Tales, so maybe they bought a job lot and didn't know what to do with the leftovers. The place seems very hipster friendly, with a predominantly young crowd in on our lunchtime visit and a jazzy soundtrack ticking along in the background. There are three handpulls on the bar, one of which was unclipped on this visit, leaving a choice between Wild Beer Put It In Your Pipe and Arbor Twigs In Space. I gave the latter a try and thought it was in pretty good condition. There is also a nice row of shiny keg taps on the bar back which offers a changing range of microbrewery products alongside an interesting bottled beer range, none of which hit the sort of crazy prices you normally see in such bars. I also had a half of the keg Titanic Stout which I enjoyed very much. We stopped here for some food and the dishes we sampled were a little pricey, but clearly very good quality. I didn't really expect to think much of this place, but it actually won me over pretty quickly and we enjoyed a few good beers and some excellent food in a quirky but comfortable environment. It might not be to everyone's taste, but I would happily return and can imagine a few more trains will be missed at Clapham Junction as a result.

Powder Keg Diplomacy was very busy early on Friday afternoon with a queue two deep at the bar. The barmen were all mixing cocktails and after waiting a couple of minutes I calculated that it would be about another ten before I would be served so I cut my losses and decided to leave. There are three hand pumps on the bar with tags around them that were impossible to read. There is some patio furniture on the path out the front and a large conservatory is found at the rear. Standard furniture is found at the front of the bar and high tables line the left hand wall opposite the bar. There were lots of people eating during my visit and I noticed that brunch is available daily from 10:00. This isn’t my sort of place so I’ll not be returning.

Rather eccentric styled bar/rest with friendly staff with an interest in beer.High prices but beer in good condition.Small chain of bars who brew their own beer under the Lost Society name(brewed at the Florence brewpub).Afternoon visits recommended as it gets quite trendy at night.I like quirky bars and this ticks all the boxes.

This didn’t look much like a pub from the outside with furnishings seen through the window appearing to be more at home in a drawing room than a bar (chintzy furnishings, aspadistras, hatstand bearing bowler and top hats, etc) but to be fair thay don’t really promote themselves as a pub, but rather as bar and restauarant celebrating Britishness in some way. Despite the rather unusual name, I decided to give it a try. There is a very small bar counter on the right – so small in fact they didn’t seem to want me wait at the bar for my pint, but instead promised to bring it over to my table. But the barman went to the effort of explaining the two ales on to me – Dark Star Hophead and Bristol Brewing Factory Acer – and gave me a taster of the Acer. My drink came served in a mug (the straight glass option was not offered so possibly they don’t have them), was well short of a pint, and cost the top of the range price of £3.90 a pint. I didn’t see a food menu, although there were drinks menus on the bar area tables, but I did spot a two-course menu advertised for £12, and clearly consisting of gastropub class food. The seats for those just wanting a drink seem to be at the front of the room, and were definitely too ornate to be normal pub furniture. There are a few tall upholstered benches and tall tables on the left opposite the bar counter, and at the back is a conservatory style area with more seating and plenty of foliage. There’s all manner of assorted odds and ends around the place – ancient gramophones, telephones, stuffed animals, old doors on the ceiling and one of the walls – and on the wall above the tall tables there’s a veritable montage of animals depicted, including monkeys (or possibly lemurs). This place is a celebration of colonial Britishness, which I reckon is a bit of a risky theme these days coupled with the potentially antagonistic name they’ve given the place. But we all know that there were good, as well as bad or possibly horrendous, associations with colonialism. Anyway, I don’t think that this place is likely to appeal to anyone who cherishes the tradional English pub, but it may be a decent place to enjoy some upmarket scran.