The Secret Bar, Tooting, SW17

Visited 27/08/24. This is a curious venue in Tooting Market. Corner location and the bar itself is a small venue on the edge of the market with some outside seating both undercover in the market and outside and which was popular on my visit. The venue itself is bare boarded with a small servery in the corner. The venue was well attended and the seating inside by the servery is very atmospheric. It isn't very big, and it is pretty hidden but I suspect this is a go-to venue for a certain type in the area that want to be on their own and unbothered for the duration of their quaffing session. Indeed a couple of solo drinkers occupying the two corner tables by the bar hardly looked up from their crosswords during the duration of my stay and hardly touched their beers so I suspect their pints were intended to persist for some time. Plenty of spirit and bottle choices but just Super Bock on tap. Not obvious what the bottle (or can) beer choices were if any. Indeed there seemed to be a single wine (red) choice by the glass when I enquired but in the end I was persuaded by the Super Bock that I think I have only ever seen in Portuguese bars or restaurants in London previously. Glad I stopped for 20 mins or so to observe a slice of life here. Indeed I noted a couple of other places in this and Broadway market not currently on PG that offer draught choices to drinkers in bar areas in their venues so I will add when I am next in the area to tick off a few more SW17 venues in a few weeks time.

A small bar located at one end of Tooting Market, it seems to be a joint venue with the Portuguese restaurant opposite, and the pub itself had something of a Portuguese theme to it, at least in terms of the beer choice. Internally it’s just one relatively small room, but they seem to have made a decent effort to make it feel a lot more traditional than might be expected from something located in a market. There are black wooden boards on the floor, black beams on the celling, and a bar counter clad in distressed wooden boards, as well as a few bits of foliage that had been draped around. There was some exposed brickwork in paces, whilst the rest of the walls were clad with wooden boards which customers had (presumably) been encouraged to write chalk messages on. Seating was limited to high chairs at the bar, and a few small tables and stools. A TV screen at one end was showing the rugby, but the volume was off so this was not too intrusive. Unfortunately there were no real ales on tap, or any beer at all come to that, with just two or three lager options including the Portuguese Super Bock. Overall, whilst not a traditional pub by any means, it had a chilled out atmosphere and friendly barmaid, and it made a useful pit stop whilst browsing the market.

Official site of The Secret Bar - thesecretbar15.wixsite.com

Official site of The Secret Bar - thesecretbar15.wixsite.com