Bar Beach Tropical, New Cross, SE14

Pub SignMan left this review about The Fat Walrus

This is a very plain, soulless student pub ideally located next to Goldsmiths University. The pub has a bare boarded, L-shaped interior with exposed brick and plain painted walls plus some modern wood panels that look very cheap, ugly and partly finished. A high banquette runs down the left-hand side with bar stools in support, whilst metal chairs serve small, square tables in the middle of the room. The bar is down the right-hand wall and has a pleasant glazed tile counter front, with a strip of these tiles also running below the bare bricks on the bar back. The place is remarkable for the fact that it is completely devoid of decor, with just a few stylistic lights hung from the high ceiling, but absolutely nothing adorning the walls. The room extends to the rear down the left side, past a slot machine and another banquette, to a rear door that leads out to a decent looking garden space with a fair amount of shelter, some seating booths and a few plants. Pop music was playing in the background thankfully, as the pub was awkwardly quiet - so quiet in fact, that the barman was about to take his dog out for a walk when I arrived and seemed a little put out after having to stay and serve me, the only customer, instead.
With no punters, it was probably for the best that there was no cask ale available, so I took my chances with a mainstream selection that included Camden Pale (£6.30 a pint), Beavertown Neck Oil and an unidentified Tiny Rebel beer as the token craft options. Unhelpfully, there were no keg inserts on the taps and no beer board, so it was very hard to identify what beers were available. I imagine the place could get very noisy when full, thanks to a lack of soft furnishings, but only one other customer came through during my visit - a fact that the barman bizarrely blamed on the London Marathon, which had taken place several hours earlier that day.
This was a disappointment on just about every level - a terrible, characterless interior, a less than ideal welcome, no cask ale and no atmosphere. Only the garden struck me as a plus point and I didnt even venture out there, so that might not meet expectations when viewed up close. I drank in some terrible pubs during my student days, but always felt that those sort of dives were a thing of the past, yet here is somewhere as dull and dispiriting as the worst of those I can recall - the students of South London deserve better.

Date of visit - 21st April 2024

On 17^th August 2024 - rating: 3
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