The Kings Arms, SE1

The Kings Arms is a traditional London backstreet boozer that was rammed during a visit on Thursday evening a couple of weeks ago. The front of this corner pub houses a rounded central bar that was two deep with customers for almost the whole evening. Around the exterior walls are small tables, it can get very cosy. The bar supports standard and premium keg alongside four hand pumps down the left of the bar counter and five down the right. It was too busy to make notes, but I did have a few nice pints of Adnams Southwold. Unfortunately, I was unaware of the additional five hand pumps along the right until we were leaving. At the rear some steps lead down to an open plan seating area and Kanchana’s Kitchen, which is a Thai restaurant. There are also two function rooms available for hire. Even though busy, the service was polite and I will make a point of revisiting when I’m next in the area at a quieter time.

Best ale range I found in London, with 9 pulls again on the go. Lovely unspoilt interior, in keeping with the unspoilt appearance of the street. Miserable service from one of the chaps behind the bar but the others were friendly enough. didn’t quite warm to it really, maybe next time.

Finding myself back in the area I decided to relook this one up again and was very pleased to find it in rude health on a Thursday late afternoon early evening. All nine ale pumps on the go and a very good selection available. On the four pumps in the right hand room were St Austell Tribute, Hancock HB, Titanic Iceberg and Island Brewery Nipper Bitter. Then in the left hand room alongside the pubs Kings Ale (a badged Sharps brew) there was Oakham Citra, Adnams Bitter, Heritage Brewing Co. Its Tremendous and Elephant School Brewing Company My Milk Stout brings all the Bulls to the Yard. Between us we tried six of them and there weren’t a duff pint all night and as well as having the longest names seen on a pump clip the Elephant School stout was the pick of the bunch. Very good service levels from the all female team working the jump who impressively handled the after work rush and by the time we left both the pub and the road outside were rammed. Over the 13 years since I last uploaded a post about this pub it has never let me down. Time to make it one of my rare 9’s me thinks..