Sylvan Post, SE23

Official site of Sylvan Post - sylvanpost.co.uk

Official site of Sylvan Post - sylvanpost.co.uk

I walked past this pub thinking it was still a functional Post Office although the tables and chairs outside should have been a give away,i got round to doing it after looking at my list of pubs to do in the area. The Sylvan Post is a pub that is housed in a 60s built Post Office. Once inside the pub still seems like a Post Office but where the counter was, there is now a bar,the room is oblong shaped and a decent size,the floor is tiled,the seating mainly normal tables and chairs plus a few tall tables and chairs,there is booth seating to the right. There was a decent choice of real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Brockley Gold which went down very well,the other beers noted were Volden Pale,Volden Session Ale and Belleville Abbotswell White. Food was being served and background music was playing. The pub was reasonably busy with a mix of more upmarket customers some with children. The beer was quite nice here but this is not really my sort of pub. Pub visited 14/5/2016

The Antic style might not be to everyone's taste, but they certainly pick some interesting buildings for their quirky, retro pubs. This place, just a short walk from Forest Hill station, is housed in a former 1960's post office and it has retained quite a few original features, including the post boxes built in to the front wall. The entrance takes you into a fairly large main room with terrazzo style tiled floor and a super-basic servery that looks like someone's GCSE woodwork project, running along the back wall. The room has been filled with tables and chairs that seem to have been pilfered from a local school, a couple of high tables and stools and some drinking ledges along the front and left hand walls. Cosy booths run along the right hand side of the room and are reminiscent of the sort of booths the postal workers might have served from. Décor is mostly in the form of postal related memorabilia, including a collection of framed stamps and an old post office clock behind the bar. A nod to the building's present use is provided by a beer bottle collection on the left hand wall and a collection of pump clips along the frame of the front windows. There is an old-school arcade machine near the front door and a collection of board games stacked on top of the post box, but I didn't see any TV screens. A series of former offices and back rooms to the rear have been converted into various snugs, which were proving popular with visitors on my visit, making it difficult to have a good snoop around. One is seemingly a former strong-room and the heavy metal door is still visible. These rooms have been furnished with lounge style seating options, as well as a curved banquette in the largest room on the right hand side. There are more post related items dotted around the place and the walls have been covered with various telegrams and the like. Apropos of nothing, there were a couple of cinema-style folding seats mounted to a wall directly opposite the toilet doors. Five ales were available on my visit - Sharps Doom Bar, Dark Star Hophead, Malemsbury Westport, Deuchars IPA and Liverpool Craft Beer Co Hop Beast. The latter seemed to be very popular with the locals, but I opted for a pint of the Westport, which was an excellent pint in good condition. This is a good addition to the fairly strong Forest Hill pub scene and well worth a look for the unusual interior alone. The main room does feel a bit like a canteen, but if you can bag a seat in one of the back rooms, it would be worth staying for a bit of a session.