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Detail Pages
The Blythe Hill Tavern, Catford, SE23
SE23
SE23 1JB
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about The Blythe Hill Tavern
A traditional pub with three distinct seperate areas although it is possible to move between them inside. The right sided room is very narrow with the bar running along one side and small tables with chairs backs to the wall, facing the bar. There are also a few bar stools. There are old framed adverts above the bar, A Caffrey's mirror, Millwall FC team photo, a montage of Irish writers and a TV in the front corner showing at the time cricket, then football later. Behind here is a rectangular room at the back of the pub; this has a horse racing theme with several photographs and a jockey's jersey in a frame. Naturally the TV in here had the racing showing.
Completing the circuit the left side room from the front is smaller, has an attractive fireplace, and its own seperate bar (unmanned yesterday PM) with two pumps clipped with Pride and Courage Best.
I opted to sit in the narrow room where the choice of Pride or Courage were supplemented by Adnams Broadside and Dark Star Hophead. The bar counter had several part poured pints of Guinness on it, being allowed to settle before finishing pouring. The black stuff moves quickly here.
There is also a pleasant paved rear garden with well tended flower beds and tubs, bench seating and a small kids play area.
I liked this pub a great deal, comfortable, traditional and really quite busy of a Saturday afternoon, as it truly deserves to be.
On 1st August 2010
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1714 recommendations about 1687 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Blythe Hill Tavern
This is one of the better London pubs that I have encountered. JohnBonser said I would like it, and he was right. It’s still a three-room pub, each with their own door to the outside, although they are now interconnected. As others have said, this pub has thankfully remained a traditional style boozer. There’s the Public Bar on the left; what must be the Saloon Bar on the right, with another comfortable connected room at the back that I guess would be the Lounge Bar. There are mock beams on the ceiling, which seems to be a feature of inter-war pubs. I sat in the Saloon Bar, where there was a flatscreen TV on the wall showing the racing. I also spotted a couple of one-armed bandits, but the one in the Saloon Bar was thankfully switched off, or possibly broken.
This is another of those special unpretentious pubs that seem to be getting rarer by the year, whose attraction is the feel of their very ordinariness – although I realise that that is something of a contradiction. It seems to be something of an “Irish” pub – the barman and the clientele when I was in were clearly from the Emerald Isle. Plus there was a superb Guinness mirror in the Lounge, as well as the iconic Guinness toucan poster above the TV in the Saloon Bar. Nothing wrong with any of that of course.
There were six real ales on when I was in recently, including General Wolfe 1759, from Westerham Brewery. Unfortunately I didn’t spot the General Wolfe until I’d ordered a pint of Dark Star Hophead – but it was a good pint nonetheless, and for under the £3 mark. The General Wolfe clip was there for all to see – but I missed it somehow! They don’t do food, at least not on a weekday lunchtime, but the barman was quite happy for me to pop to the caff a couple of doors down the road to bring a sarny back to the pub. This is a pub worth going out of your way to find, as long as you are someone who appreciates the traditional pub.
On 8th February 2010
- rating: 10
[User has posted 2629 recommendations about 2544 pubs]