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Submitted on Thursday, 5^th April 2018
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The Birds, Leytonstone, E11

692 High Road
E11
E11 3AA

Phone: 02085561131

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Leytonstone

Reviews of The Birds (Average Rating: 4½ of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Tris C left this review about The Birds

Dating from at least the start of the 19th century as the Crown Inn, the Barclay Perkins house was replaced by the current incarnation for Charrington’s around the 1930s. Today, the place takes its name from some film, the product of an obscure director who apparently lived round here.
The interior wouldn’t look out of place if operated by Antic, but it’s been in the hands of Laine’s since 2017. A mash-up interior features a bare boarded floor, distressed woodwork, some exposed brick, a splash of smoky blue paint but an interesting possibly Lincrusta cornice painted gold, but then some very fine polychromatic tiling to a wall, hinting at past glory; there’s a grand marble fireplace, above which is an LGBTQ+ flag, whilst a solitary TV showed dross with the sound off, to not interfere with a good soundtrack. The bar back is bare brick with tubular steel shelving and furniture is quite modern; there’s table football for the young crowd or bored games should they wish. There are comedy nights and ‘life drawing’ classes every Wednesday.
There’s no cask here with just two unused pumps then a reversed Old Rosie clip, a quartet of Laine’s keg beers, including their egregious Del Monte-inspired Mangolicious, a half of Guinness coming in at £3.20, served by a friendly barmaid.
As Moby mentions, this place is trying to be funky (and failing), so I funked off to the North Star, a minute’s walk from here.

On 19^th January 2024 - rating: 4
[User has posted 2209 recommendations about 2166 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Steve of N21 left this review about The Birds

I think its safe to say I don’t think I am the target demographic for this one. I popped in for a quick one on a Wednesday evening when their pub quiz was in full flow and the guy running it behind the DJ deck had a brightly coloured hair extension that would not have been out of place in Sigue Sigue Sputnik and I would have probably raised the average age of any of the teams attending by at least 10, and how they were writing the answers down was a bit of a mystery as I had trouble seeing my way to the bar.
But when you get there the beer choice is not too bad. The same two Five Points Cask Ales as mentioned below and the Railway porter was rather good. And then as well as standard draft tap units on the bar there is a tiled craft tap wall with eight taps at the back of the bar. These were dominated by Laines brews but I also saw ones from Signature Brew, Fourpure, Hackney Brewery and Five Points.
Very well described by previous reviewers I didn’t see any table tennis table but then it could have been taken out for the quiz or covered over for use as a table. And I don’t think the wall art is meant to be David Beckham.
If I ever experience a “Self/Less” moment and transfer myself into the body of a 30 year old vegan I could find myself back here. Otherwise you’ll find me in the North Star when I am back in the area.

On 16^th April 2019 - rating: 6
[User has posted 2236 recommendations about 2098 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Moby Duck left this review about The Birds

This pub is of course perfectly described by Rex below and unchanged a year on. It tries to do "quirky" but doesn't quite manage to pull it off.Just the two cask beers on, Five Points XPA and Railway Porter,despite the former being in good form the pub itself doesn't do it for me.

On 23^rd March 2019 - rating: 6
[User has posted 2151 recommendations about 2118 pubs]

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