The Manor, Walworth, SE17

Official site of The Manor - www.themanorclub.co.uk

Official site of The Manor - www.themanorclub.co.uk

A grand looking building from the outside with a long entrance stairway between two fine white columns.Go left through the traditional wooden doors to find the bar,where the 4 handpumps stood felourn leaving just a limited and uninspiring choice of keg beer where the best option seemed to be Goose Island Midway at £6.50,a rip off. I was the only punter at 1pm on a Saturday and the front section was light on furniture and has a terrestrial flatscreen off.However walking around the interior it become more interesting with polished floorboards,some exposed brick,arty wallpaper and gentle ,calming muzak.Right around is the most interesting section with a fine fireplace,stuffed animal heads above ,sofas and a boudoir feel with chandeliers.There is also a large ,paved beer garden down some steps outside.A fine wooden staircase leads to a first floor meeting room and second floor loos. Food is produced by a seperate operation branded Nativo with a short eclectic menu of Latino dishes. There are a lot of students and young folk in the area and perhaps the pricing here is too high to compete.Nothing for real ale fan but worth a squint if passing to view some original features.

Almost the feel of a hotel bar. Toilets up and down from the bar which had two weak real ales - the rest keg.

A beacon of light in the pub wastelands of Walworth, this is an Antic pub set in a marvellous old Grade II listed Georgian building which was formerly the headquarters of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions. A flight of steps leads up to the front door, from which you have a choice of rooms, with the main bar through the left hand side. This is a nice, reverse-C shaped room with smart floorboards and a servery along the right hand wall. The bar has a surprisingly high counter with a padded front and a bare brick bar back with retro shelving units and old display cases full of cut glass drinking vessels. The front part of the room has standard tables and chairs around a fireplace with a stag’s head above, old paintings on the walls and a bookshelf in the opposite corner. Passing the bar, you reach a sizeable, open rear space with large windows along the back wall which allow plenty of light in. This space has floral wallpaper, a row of tables and chairs, a few benches and armchairs and some suitably grand chandeliers. Beyond the end of the bar, a side room appears behind a curtained entrance, offering cosy seating in a room with muted lighting and Antic’s usual eclectic furniture and decor, including an impressive grandfather clock. Steps to the rear lead down to a sizeable beer garden with lots of picnic benches, large umbrellas and a mix of patio and grass surfaces. Another room to the right of the front door offers additional seating but was not explored on this visit. There are four handpulls on the bar but two of these were out of commission when I arrived, leaving a choice between Volden Session and Atom Janssens Lens. The latter was served up by a friendly enough barman and turned out to be pretty well kept. I enjoyed supping my pint from the rear part of the room, watching a three-legged dog race around the beer garden in pursuit of an old tennis ball. Antic have done well to get their hands on this fine old building and make it available for the public to access and admire. I thought this was a very comfortable, well presented place that didn’t suffer too much from Antic’s usual half-hearted refurbishment attempts and struck me as somewhere that might appeal to a wide range of customers. There’s not much around here to rival it, so this place is a must do if in Walworth and would compliment a crawl around nearby Elephant & Castle.

This is the latest addition to the growing Antic pub company, housed in a magnificent old ex union and Labour Party building. The bar area is on the ground floor, with the bar counter in the room on the left as you enter. The room then loops round to more seating at the back, then further round to another room reached via an archway framed by ornate curtains and pretty much back where you started. The furnishings are largely what you expect from Antic - recycled church chairs in the room on the right, but the room at the back had matching writing desks doing service as tables and, wonder of wonders, all chairs in this room were matching brown leather, or leather effect, upholstered chairs with a coat of arms on the back of them all. It's the first time I've seen that in a pub, and very upmarket for Antic. Decor consists of stuffed animal heads on the walls, plus prints of aristocratic and military figures - and dogs. Of course there's exposed brickwork all over the place, a stripped beam, plus copper piping and rusty waste pies, none of which was ever intended to be exposed to the human gaze. Typical Antic. There were three ales on - Volden Spring (intentionally hazy, and I didn't really take to it) Volden Session ale (£3.40 a pint as I recall and in decent condition), plus something called Mosaic. They don't do food yet, but they plan to do so, and a first floor room has apparently ben earmarked for a restaurant area. The toilets are on the second floor, which is obviously not ideal. This one is quite luxurious by Antic standards, with much of the furnishings good quality and matching. This is a perfectly decent place in which to stop off for a pint or two. Three real ales on puts it the top of the tree regarding ale choice in the Walworth Road area.