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Submitted on Thursday, 29^th August 2024
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Kings Head, SW17

84 Upper Tooting Road
SW17
SW17 7PB

Phone: 02087676708

Correct details

Pub Type

Taylor Walker (Spirit Pubs)

Served areas

Tooting, Tooting Bec

Tweets by Kings Head

The Kings Head Who is joking us for #Valentinesday #Quiz? Monday 8pm start. #Tooting https://t.co/IpW72yzAn2 1:33 PM Feb 9th 2022 from Reputation.com-Social

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Reviews of Kings Head (Average Rating: 6 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

David Walton left this review about Kings Head

Visited 27/08/24.

The magnificence of the venue itself (ignoring all the messing about) is very impressive. It is a big venue with almost countless nice features, it has lots of interesting areas to sit in. There is some seating out the front on the busy main road plus a much larger seating area at the side and wrapping round to the back. However, it has been made up to within an inch of its life - I would have happily turned my ankle over on some old imperfect, un level flooring here, but nothing of the sort, that next generation spirit level was dutifully employed here to achieve refit perfection. Even the signs suspended from the ceiling telling you where the gents and beer garden are too precise, I prefer to rely on my poor personal navigation to eventually find the places in a finite universe.

Cask – what a total let down - both the Lilley's ciders (mango and rhubarb) coming soon so just Abbot, IPA and Yardbird pale ale to choose from plus the clip telling you what cask beer is! No guests, nada. Loads of keg choices, Aspall, Old Mount berries & cherries, Estrella Galicia, Guinness, Neck Oil, GK keg beers Level Head, Flint Eye & Hazy Day, Madri, Moretti, Peroni, Wolfpack Pilsner, Clwb Tropica from Tiny Rebel, Big Wave, Amstel and Big Wave golden ale. This place deserves better than that.

The venue whilst busy outside, was dead inside. OK not unexpected given summer has finally arrived, but even the outside was too orderly. I like a bit of unpredictability in my quaffing experience. This place, and what GK have made it, is blandness squared. A perfect example of how to ruin a beautiful pub. I could detect a frown on ‘big’ Henry’s face looking down on those arriving here and thinking someone should have lost their head over this calamity.

On 31^st August 2024 - rating: 4
[User has posted 631 recommendations about 631 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Pub SignMan left this review about Kings Head

This is a pretty spectacular Victorian pub on the main road down through Tooting. Entering through an elaborately tiled front porch, you emerge into an impressive U-shaped main bar area with a small partitioning screen notionally dividing the space into two halves. You’re immediately struck by the scale of the grand, curved bar counter, which forms part of an island servery and has a decorative dark wood front, badly scuffed top, two large arches as part of the chopped-out bar back and plenty of etched glass and detailed woodwork. More of the fine glasswork can be found in great quantities throughout the pub, including an amazing rural scene across a divider at the far end of the bar and in a full height partitioning wall that screens a small left-hand side room. Another such room hides behind similar screens to the rear left and has plenty of formal seating compared to the sofas, high stools and basic chairs that furnish the main bar area. Also worth noting are the decorative friezes that run around much of the room, some smart modern wallpaper that doesn’t look out of place, lincrusta ceiling decorations and a large skylight. A couple of slot machines and several TV screens showing muted live football were a bit distracting from the overall look and a quiet soundtrack chuntered away in the background without really disturbing. A roadside seating area out the front offers a good amount of picnic bench seating and great people watching opportunities.
This is a Greene King pub and sadly not one which makes an effort to get guest ales in, so I was left with a rather uninspiring choice between Greene King IPA and Abbot Ale, both doubled up on the pumps along with two Lilley’s ciders. A friendly barmaid served up a tolerable pint of the Abbot which I slowly supped whilst trying to take in as much of the pub’s fine interior as I could.
Tooting’s pub scene is all much of a muchness in my experience, with a couple of middling Antic pubs, a half decent ‘Spoons and some craft beer spots all failing to stake a claim as a must-do venue. That means that places like this, with pretty average beer, are just as much worthy of checking out and whilst I can’t say I was blown away by the beer, I loved the interior and thought it was a nice place to settle down in for a while.

Date of visit – 16th April 2023

On 29^th November 2023 - rating: 7
[User has posted 3350 recommendations about 3350 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Bucking Fastard left this review about Kings Head

This pub has got more heritage features than you could shake a shitty stick at,it listed by CAMRA as a Historic Pub of National Importance.Owned by Greene King,it's a miracle it has survived given the multicultural make up of this part of Tooting and the cultural reluctance to drinking ,although that reluctance may extend to all beer drinkers given the ale options are just GK Abbot and IPA (boring,NBSS 3,£5.10).However 4 Lilly real cider pumps may hint at the USP on the drinks front.
The exterior is extravagant and the interior largely original with great tiling and mosaics to both entrance lobbies,etched glass room dividers in the front area ,a near complete island bar,a rear skylight to the entrance of the large rear room which is wood panelled throughout.
However the dead hand of Greene King is never far away and every room had a multitude of sports flatscreens,the furniture was a mismatch of worn items not in keeping with the surroundings and the fruit machines cheapen the atmosphere.At least the muzak was gentle.On ordering food it appeared a lot of items were off the corporate menu,forcing a move to higher priced options.However it's not pricey,just standard fodder.
There is a beer garden,pub quiz and all sport will feature here and maybe that's enough for it to survive.It's vast and does feel unloved when quiet but at least it's still there waiting ,possibly in vain,for someone to recreate the Victorian splendour.Pop in ,revel in the heritage then move on to pastures new.

On 7^th April 2023 - rating: 7
[User has posted 2936 recommendations about 2936 pubs]

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