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Beer of the Week (w/e 27th April 2025) with Thuck Phat
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Image posted by David Walton
Submitted on Tuesday, 28th May 2024
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Detail Pages
The Herne Tavern, East Dulwich, SE22
SE22
SE22 0RR
The Herne Tavern
Summer is here to stay! Enjoy a refreshing drink and enjoy the sunshine in our Beer Garden.
3:38 PM Jun 13th 2023 from Twitter for iPhone
Reviews of The Herne Tavern (Average Rating: 6½ of 10) see review guidelines
Pub SignMan left this review about The Herne Tavern
Set in a pleasant neighbourhood at the South Western cornwr of Peckham Rye Park, this is an impressive two bar pub with a few notable features. You enter into a large main bar area with bare boards, half height dark wood panelling and some amazing leaded windows with 'Saloon' and 'Lounge' panes and green stained glass inserts. The servery is over to the left and has a nice dark wood counter with satisfying curved ends and a slightly knocked about bar back that retains some leaded glasswork, but also now looks straight through to the other bar. Tables and chairs fill an open space to the right, around a small brick fireplace, with an upright piano at the far end. Meanwhike, the left-hand bar is much smaller, but has similar panelling and windows, plenty more seating and an old fashioned tiled fireplace. The pub is sparingly decorated with a model boat, a few old movie posters, mirrors and paintings, plus some Euro '24 flag bunting. Staff had placed a small vase of fresh flowers on every table, which I thought was quite a nice touch, whilst a door to the rear takes you out to an unexplored beer garden.
I only called here because I had a bit of time to kill and was therefore not expecting to find any ale, so it was a nice surprise to see three handpulls in use, giving a choice of St Austell Tribute (£5.10 a pint), Harvey's Sussex Best and Wadworth Horizon. Sadly, the Tribute wasn't really up to much, suggesting that three ales might be a bit of a stretch for this place.
I liked the feel of this pub, which looks great in passing and has a few interesting features to explore as well as a proper two bar layout. It was let down by the beer quality, which can perhaps be remedied by focusing on a smaller range. Get that bit right and I'd be inclined to call in again the next time I'm out this way.
Date of visit - 11th June 2024
On 22nd October 2024
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3350 recommendations about 3350 pubs]
David Walton left this review about The Herne Tavern
V similar view to the below. Physically a nice pub with interesting features, Ok but nothing particularly interesting beer wise making it better than a 5 for me but not within remote distance of a 7 absent a much more interesting cask range. The outside space was large will undoubtedly see large numbers here on a nice summer evening. The venue felt like it had a good proportion of the chattering classes of East Dulwich present on my time here and I felt I was the subject of some real time analysis regarding what was I typing into my hand held device during the duration of my time here!
Beer wise three of the four hand pumps were dispensing. Harvey’s and Tribute as per previous review plus what the clip described as a crisp golden ale called Horizon that I was totally drawn in to the the tune of a single pint. It was a golden ale but I wasn’t sure where to land on the crispness spectrum in my synopsis of the pint. Loads of keg choices. I did record but I can’t be asked to individually record as there was nothing remotely interesting or different. If I was to say the Gipsy Hill Bandit pale ale was the most left field beer on tap here you would understand my decision to save the next 2 mins of my life in preference to glancing the covers of OK and Hello magazines in preference.
This is actually, snide comments about the bland keg offering above aside, a very decent pub. If I were in the area I would definitely pop in again to see if at the point in time there was a more interesting cask offering available. Even with the choice I was faced with it is very pleasant and definitely better than a number of other ED venues.
On 28th May 2024
- rating: 6
[User has posted 631 recommendations about 631 pubs]
Steve of N21 left this review about The Herne Tavern
This is an OK pub but after the Ivy House earlier on the crawl the heritage features here are not really in the same league. Some nice stained glass windows to the front and the former public bar is the most untouched of the three now interconnected internal spaces. Some nice traditional panelling here and it remains fairly untouched, or at least uncovered from the dreaded shades of grey Farrow and Ball paint that has inflicted the dining areas of the other spaces.
Then at the back there’s a very pleasant outside garden area with a fair section undercover, which I guess was beefed up due to the pandemic.
Thre of the four pumps were in operation for my visit with the rather pedestrian choice of St Austell Tribute, Harvey’s Sussex Best and Butcombe Bitter, the latter of which was a decent pint.
As BF says below, solid enough but nothing spectacular and not worth a special journey for. But if you are trying to make it to the Gowlett from the nearby Watson's General Telegraph, then its worth poking your nose in.
On 2nd May 2024
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2236 recommendations about 2098 pubs]
View more reviews of The Herne Tavern (8)
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- Official site of The Herne Tavern - www.theherne.co.uk
- Randomness Guide to London - Herne Tavern entry
- Facebook - The Herne
- Twitter - The Herne Tavern
- CAMRA WhatPub :: The Herne Tavern - whatpub.com
- Historic Pub Interiors - pubheritage.camra.org.uk
East Dulwich, 1.19 miles, 22 min walk (show)
Nunhead, 1.31 miles, 25 min walk (show)
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : No last updated 28 May 2024 by Tris C
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 28 May 2024 by Tris C
- Beer Festivals : Yes - May - last updated 29 July 2013 by Dave McNally
- Beer Garden : Yes last updated 28 May 2024 by Tris C
- CAMRA Discount : No last updated 28 May 2024 by Tris C
- Car Park : No last updated 28 May 2024 by Tris C
- Child Friendly : Yes last updated 22 October 2024 by Pub SignMan
- Darts : No last updated 22 October 2024 by Pub SignMan
- Dog Friendly : Yes last updated 22 October 2024 by Pub SignMan
- Function Room : Yes - According to Twitter - last updated 21 July 2015 by Dave McNally
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 29 July 2013 by Dave McNally
- Jukebox : No last updated 22 October 2024 by Pub SignMan
- Karaoke : No last updated 22 October 2024 by Pub SignMan
- Live Music : Yes last updated 22 October 2024 by Pub SignMan
- Live TV Sports : Yes last updated 28 May 2024 by Tris C
- Micropub : No last updated 28 May 2024 by Tris C
- Pinball : No last updated 22 October 2024 by Pub SignMan
- Pool Table : Yes last updated 28 May 2024 by Tris C
- Quiz Night : Yes last updated 22 October 2024 by Pub SignMan
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 29 July 2013 by Dave McNally
- Real Cider : No last updated 28 May 2024 by Tris C
