Fox & Firkin, Ladywell, SE13

3 or 4 years ago I wouldn't have entered into the f and f saying it's a student dive and just full of students and stuff. However white Pete and I went in there a few times over the festive period while the ladywell tavern was being redone and ravensbourne was on way out and we were pleasantly surprised. Decent pool table, lovely barmaids. Andy Mac came to some sort of drum and bass thing here in 2015 and loved it but I'll leave that to the youths.

This is one of the old Firkin brewpubs, located near Lewisham shopping centre and handy for Ladywell station. The pub is now primarily a live music venue, with a long list of gigs detailed on their events board suggesting that you can catch an act here pretty much every other day. The place has a single room set up with an entrance porch leading you in to a fairly deep room with the servery along the right hand wall. Directly opposite the door is a pool table, which seems a slightly odd location, but it is at least out of the way of the stage which stands under the rear wall. The servery has a traditional bar counter and a large, quirky mural along the top of the bar back. Rows of standard tables and chairs run through the centre of the room whilst the front and left hand sides are furnished with a mixture of pews, sofas and benches. To the rear left there is a nice old fireplace with a smart mirror above, whilst over to the right there is a DJ booth and sound engineer's mixing board. The stage is draped with gold curtains and plenty of space has been left in front of it for people to dance. We came here to see a band and the dancefloor was full from the first song of the support band until the headliner left the stage, suggesting that the pub has built up a committed group of regulars. Décor is a bit 1960's hippy chic, with a few psychedelic images dotted around, beads hanging from the ceiling and so on. A passage to the rear left leads you past a kitchen serving hatch and a funky butterfly print to a cracking tree-lined beer garden, nicely lit in the evening and with lots of seating and some barbeque facilities. There were three beers on hand pump - Sharps Doom Bar and Cornish Coaster plus Truman's Lazarus. As befits a London gig venue, keg options focussed on beers from Signature Brew and their Backstage IPA was pretty tasty. The Lazarus was in surprisingly good condition and a fair proportion of customers seemed to be plumping for the ale options. I thought this was a pretty good pub gig venue, with a quality sound system, a good stage and dancefloor set up and plenty of proper pub seating. The beer was good and the staff were friendly if not the most efficient. The place worked really well for me as somewhere to enjoy a few pints and listen to some decent music, but may lose some of this appeal at quieter times, although I would suggest it's a pretty solid option in this part of town.

Occasionally one finds oneself in a pub that’s a bit difficult to describe – like the Fox & Firkin. “Eclectic” might get somewhere there; “hallowe’enesque” might work (if there’s such a word). The usual stuff is the pool table, distressed sofas at the back, the completely mismatched normal tables and chairs with small stools. Then we have the model aircraft suspended from the ceiling; the top-hatted fox figure on a cantilevered shelf behind the bar; the enormous lightshade at a funny angle in the middle of the room; and the gold draped stage at the back, luridly illuminated by red, blue and green lights. Better not forget the pair of skeletons on a wall opposite the stage. Obviously live music is massively important here. The July gig list on the wall had something happening on average every other night. Indeed when I was in on Friday afternoon, some lads were moving a load of kit into the pub. On the ale front they had on the Sambrook’s pair of Junction and Wandle (£1.60 a half). I didn’t see any sign of food. This looks like a fun pub, but probably not somewhere for a quiet pint on a Friday evening.

Fox & Firkin pages - www.the1440.co.uk

Fox & Firkin pages - www.the1440.co.uk

Publicising itself as Lewisham's best live music venue, the black interior is all a bit Gothic when in daytime use as a normal pub. Eclectic mix of furniture at the front, pool table and DJ booth in the middle and small raised stage at the rear. Beer garden out back (not visited). Three of five handpumps in operation, offering Pride, Brains SA Gold and the - conveniently, but coincidently (I think) named - Firkin Good (also brewed by Brains, £3.05). 10% discount for Camra members who can produce a card.

Randomness Guide to London - Fox And Firkin entry

Randomness Guide to London - Fox And Firkin entry