The Brookmill, SE8

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Tris C left this review about The Brookmill

This is a mid-19th century pub which until 2016 was known as the Cranbrook Arms; a photo by the loo taken around the ‘70s/’80s shows that it was once a Courage house though no brewery regalia remains, which is a shame.
The pub is situated on the edge of Brookmill Park and surrounded by darling little houses, all now gentrified. The previous reviews still hold, with a thoroughly trendified interior with mismatched modern furniture, tealights and dried flowers in bottles to tables, rough wood, pale grey wainscoting with distressed bare brick above; as mentioned, there’s an LED trailway departure board to the rusticated bar back. There’s also a sweetie dispenser and unattractive F1 on the TVs, sound off to not interfere with the decent soundtrack. Customers were few for a Friday night and mixed though the place is a trek from the University of Greenwich, with one small child being led out at nearly 10.00pm which isn’t really a plus point, but probably explains the sweetie machine.
The ale choice wasn’t as inspiring as when Rex visited, with one unused pump then Brockley’s Summer XPA, then Bexley’s Bursted, both at £2.55 a half and passable though either irretrievably dull or just plain lacking in condition, served by a friendly barman.
It’s a shame about the unsympathetic makeover and the lack of ales’ conditioning; the return of a gorgeous pint of Naked Ladies would have got the score up by a point; if you want a great pub in SE8, the Dog & Bell is a 20-minute walk, the Royal George even less.

On 26^th July 2023 - rating: 5
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