Woolwich Equitable, Woolwich, SE18

There were three ales on when I visited last week - one of their house ales Volden Pale Ale (£1.85 a half), Oakham Citra, and Southwark Brewery Full Sail Spring Ale. Clipboard menus were on all the tables - the wild boar sausage casserole at £7 looks good value, as long as you like wild boar sausages, and the Angus beefburger, etc, etc, is £10. The room has Antic written all over it. The floor's been stripped back to the basic, and extremely distressed concrete, which is in odd contrast to the elegant interior described by the previuous reviewer. There are rows of re-cycled cinema seats with some longish tables down the side of the room, with normal tables and chairs that look slightly better quality than in most Antic pubs that I've been in. I would guess that there's enough room to move these tables and chairs in the centre of the room to the sides when they have a band playing, as mentioned by the previous reviewer. There's less of the quirky, or perhaps downright bizarre, stuff you normally get in Antic pubs. I did spot a piano lurking by the entrance, and on the right there's a shelving unit with board games on it. I too saw the balcony above the bar counter looking down on the main room, but I couldn't see where to access it, if indeed it was accessible to the public. This is essentially a drinking barn of a pub. It's housed in a magnificent old building dominating General Gordon Square, but the exterior grandeur doesn't really extend to the interior. I quite liked this pub; indeed I usually do like Antic pubs, but to be honest I didn't really like this one quite as much as most others that I've visited.

Built in 1935 for the Woolwich Equitable Building Society, this is a fine art deco building in General Gordon Square which has been made accessible to the public thanks to the efforts of the Antic pub chain. You enter up a flight of steps into a large, square concrete floored room with a large servery sited on the rear wall. A band, positioned directly opposite the front door but facing the rear of the room, struck up a the precise moment I walked through the door, and their presence meant that I undoubtedly saw the place in a different layout to normal. Seating had been arranged in two rows down both left and right hand sides with smart button backed banquettes and matching chairs along each wall and similar chairs serving a mix of tables further into the room. It remained unclear what might be in the centre of the room if the band were not playing. The bar is on the rear wall under a balcony decorated with various shields and horse brasses sewn onto the curtains. In fact, these curtains implied that the bar area could be screened off from the front part of the pub, should the need arise. The bar has a dark wood counter and a traditional mirrored bar back with a portrait of the Queen as a centrepiece. Above is a decorative ceiling with two large chandeliers and a detailed central rose, supported by marble pillars. Modern wallpaper has been used on some walls and there are various portraits and photos of local scenes on show throughout the room. To the front left is a small dark wood panelled space that offers standard chair and bench seating under an impressive arched window. Food is served and a quick look at the menu suggested some slightly odd pricing, with sausage and mash costing £7.00 and the cod £14.50. Antic can usually be relied upon for some decent ale options and in this case there were five handpulls in operation offering Volden Session Ale and Pale Ale, Truman's Runner and Attaboy and Hop Stuff APA. I'd already enjoyed some good Hop Stuff beers on my crawl around Woolwich and so decided to continue this theme with the APA which was also in good shape. I thought this was one of Antic's more coherent offerings, with less of the stylistic excesses that seem to characterise their pubs and more emphasis on the fine old building they'd acquired. I enjoyed my visit here supping my pint and tapping my foot to the band whilst reading my paper - it's another good addition to the Woolwich pub scene, helping to make a good pub crawl around town a distinct possibility.

The Woolwich Equitable is situated in the middle of Woolwich in a grand looking building. Once inside you have to go up a few steps to get into the room,the room is quite large and oblong shaped the bar is to the rear and faces on entry,the floor looks like pitted concrete,the seating is a mix of types,there is a very long bench seat to the left normal tables and chairs in the middle area along with a settee and chairs,the right side has proper old cinema seating in 6 rows this looked very unusual in a pub. There is an upstairs balcony which overlooks to front area on the pub,i did'nt go up to see what it was like. There was a decent choice of real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Clarence & Fredericks Best Bitter which was well kept but a bit on the bland side,the other beers i noted were Adnams Ghost Ship,Sambrooks Wandle /Power House Porter and Hop Stuff Renegade IPA. Decent background music was playing on my Saturday dinner visit,menus were on all tables but you can just have drink at any table. I quite liked this place. Pub visited 2/5/2015