The Mansion Pub, Kennington, SE11

Tris C left this review about The Mansion Pub

An odd place is this because as the Mansion House Stores, it goes back to at least the early 19th century, but the current structure appears to date from the ‘20s/’30s, the original name still in use by at least 1944, meaning that this is indeed an original pub, not a conversion.
However, what’s inside bears no relationship to anything that could be remotely described as a pub, certainly not a traditional one. The interior is a mishmash of modern tropes looking like a hotel – cum - cocktail bar, with the likes of bare brick with ferns cascading over them. Furniture is mixed and seemingly zoned by style; an area to the rear looked geared towards dining. There were three large TVs showing either Crufts or the golf (no-one watching), sound off so as not to interfere with Oasis and lampshades are wicker. Customers were few in number but looked like a small clutch of lost tourists. One however stood out; an old codger drinking at the bar with his dentures resting by his pint. It was only when I approached that the brusque East European barman asked him to put them back in stating ‘Aye have err cuztomer’; I hate to think what would have happened if I hadn’t turned up; I was gobsmacked.
The association with Oakham now severed, there were four unused pumps, one paying lip service to cask with a reversed Sharp’s Solar Wave clip – fat chance – then a fizzorama dispensed from a staple tap, with a Prahva coming home at £2.75 a half, served by the aforementioned barman.
This is a poor place, the customer leaving his dentures on the bar finally doing it for me. The fabulous Old Red Lion is next door, for those seeking a quality pub to get their teeth into.

On 10^th August 2023 - rating: 2
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