The Plough, Battersea, SW11

The Plough page at the Youngs site - www.youngs.co.uk

Official site of The Plough - www.theploughstjohnshill.co.uk

The Plough is a bar and kitchen with a long bar on the right wall which has an open kitchen to the left of it. The main body of furniture consists of large thick wooden tables meaning that people have to share which some like and some don’t. At the front of the pub is some sofa seating next to floor to ceiling windows that look out onto St John’s Hill. Standard and premium draught products including some meantime beers are available and the bar supports three hand pumps. During my Friday evening visit these were drawing, Portabello Brewery’s Star alongside Youngs’ Ordinary and Waggle Dance. The cheapest thing on the food menu is a burger that is priced at £9. Wimbledon tennis is advertised by the front door and an Andy Murray match was being shown on the two small plasma screens, but it was muted in favour of some background music. There were some decks set up by the entrance so I imagine that a DJ was due to do a set later in the evening. There is also an advertised quiz that takes place from 19:30 every Sunday. I found this place to be characterless and boring and the chatter echoing off the cold surfaces started to give me a headache. I do not plan to return anytime soon.

This is a 'stealth' Youngs pub which describes itself as "a cosmopolitan New-York inspired bar and kitchen on the increasingly trendy St John’s Hill" so you can imagine what to expect (and you won't be far wrong). It is housed beneath an anonymous modern block, and the only surprise is the reasonably high ceiling that means it has a reasonably airy feel. Informally divided between the bar area near the front door and the dining area at the other end. Loud music to drown out the conversation, or perhaps the other way around, but either way rather annoying and unnecessary. Two of three handpumps in operation, offering Ordinary and Windsor & Eton Kohinoor (pricey at £4.09, but in good form). Also has one of the new Meantime 'brewery fresh' tanks beside the entrance. Overall, it must appeal to some people (since it was quite busy), but not really my cup of tea...

The Plough page at the Youngs site - www.youngs.co.uk

Official site of The Plough - www.theploughstjohnshill.co.uk

This is a newly built pub, and it looks it, being a modern glass and concrete affair with what I guess is residential accommodation above it. In fact, the Google map still shows it as a building site. However there has been a Plough on this site for very may years. The previous Plough was built in 1958, replacing an 1875 pub built by Young's that had been destroyed during the blitz. This is still a Young’s pub, and had on Young’s Bitter, London Gold, two pale ales from the Meantime and Redemption breweries, plus an American brown ale (couldn’t identify the brewery from the keg clip as there was a sticker over it) and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Food was available of course, but I didn’t get to see a menu. The interior is as ultra modern as the exterior, with some rather odd furnishings such as the large wooden table seemingly suspended from a pillar. There were also some massive magenta/crimson sofas with laptop-wielding coffee-drinking office types lounging around on them, as well as a good sprinkling of mums with babes in arms around the place. There’s nothing traditional about this pub, although I did get to sit on a normal chair at a normal table. Mind you, the table was one of the stickiest I had ever encountered in a pub, and it’s up against some pretty stiff opposition for that title! There was, however, some loud back pop music being played at background level, interrupted of course by the occasional shriek from one of the infants. I’m not planning a return visit.