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Poll for Lancaster crawl June /July 2026 with Bucking Fastard
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Detail Pages
The Lion & Key, Leyton, E10
E10
E10 5EL
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 3 of 10) see review guidelines
David Walton left this review about The Lion & Key
Visited 23/09/25
No cask. Basic keg offering of Guinness, Heineken, Moretti and Fosters.
This is now a bar at the side of the hotel reception area, with the white marble flooring of the hotel reception continuing into the bar area to the left-hand edge of the bar counter, which is to the slight left of the venue entrance. Some large glass doors separate the bar area from the hotel reception. There are a few regular tables in the front windows opposite the bar counter, and some backed tall stool seating along the bar counter. The larger modern bare boarded flooring area is to the left-hand side making the bar L shaped and has regular tables and chairs plus some banquettes along the longer left-hand and right-hand walls. An open serving hatch occupied much of the rear wall of this space. Can see some money has been spent on the refurb of this place and it is a work in progress still, but I found the place quite sterile.
On 6th April 2026
- rating: 3
[User has posted 1590 recommendations about 1565 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Lion & Key
With this very old name influenced by the Stratford Langthorne Abbey, rumour has it that this pub dates all the way back to 1300, with a mention in 1579, so it’s at least late Tudor, the current structure dating from 1889, no brewers’ Tudor in evidence, with an ugly hotel bolted onto the rear and top, a small car park behind.
The photos from 2007 and 10 show a rather alarming building but it’s clear that some money has been spent on the conversion. The interior is modern boarded – gris perla marble to the bar area – paint is mainly white to plain walls with some dark grey punctuations. Lighting comprises a recessed photobolic strip around part of the upper area, then light fittings with mashrabiya-like shades, a theme repeated to some divider screens. Furniture takes the form of dark grey velour peripheral banquettes then modern restaurant-style furniture. There’s an open kitchen hatch from which a takeaway service furnishes customers with smelly fast food; in all, the affair resembles a posh kebab shop, with absolutely no cues as to the pub’s heritage, with music coming courtesy of a television sound system linked to Hits Radio 1. Customers were very few for a Saturday night at just gone 9.00pm but were mixed, with some slightly rough trade, a tramp and a woman in of all things, a dressing gown, so probably a hotel guest.
There’s no cask, just chrome founts for Moretti, Fosters and Guinness, £3.30 a half.
This is a bit depressing; why would anyone come here with the Coach & Horses just down the road?
On 5th October 2024
- rating: 3
[User has posted 2324 recommendations about 2267 pubs]