The Prince Albert, Southwark, SE1

Three ales on here – Courage Best, Doom Bar, and Ruddles Best, with a London Pride clip reversed. So, nothing worth shouting about in the way of ales but three functional ales is a lot better than some places. Food was standard pub grub, and available Mon-Fri 12.00 to 3.00 PM, and 6.00 to 9.00 PM. The pub classic of ham, egg and chips was £5.95. This pub is set in the ground floor of a modern glass and concrete block, looking very much like a 60s build. It was very busy when I was in on Wednesday lunchtime, but I guess most pubs are in the run-up to Christmas. There were the usual large TV screens on the walls, but switched off, as well as a number of miscellaneous prints. A row of miniature bottles graced a shelf above the bar gantry, and other shelves bore a range of different sized earthenware jugs. All in all it looks as if someone has made a reasonable attempt at injecting a bit of chatacter into what is really a very ordinary pub. But to be honest they don’t have a lot to work with here. Basically this is an ordinary, nothing special pub. There’s no reason to seek it out, but it is a pub that’s still open, does some drinkable ale, and thus is a positive in an area that’s not exactly bristling with top notch pubs.

Ok for a swift pint en route to the station but nothing special.

I had no intention of visiting this pub during a recent London Bridge to Waterloo crawl, but having found my intended pub, the nearby Rose and Crown, shut for the weekend, I decided to stop off here for a quick one. The pub is a simple triangular shape with wooden floors, banquette seating along the walls and low level lighting, creating a nice, warm ambiance. One wall is entirely covered by a large mirror, which helps to give the illusion of extra space. The decor includes quite a lot of nice brewerania dotted around and a number of retro items were displayed in the windows including old radios, fire extinguishers, clocks and lamps. There was a collection of model cars and motorbikes above the bar counter, which is situated at the rear of the room, and the toilets had some impressively sexist old Guinness adverts hung above the urinals. Being very much a local's pub, all the pub staples were present and correct: a dartboard, slot machine and jukebox were all spotted, whilst a TV showed muted football highlights and loud rock music played over the speakers. There was a fairly modest number of people in on my early Saturday evening visit, mostly congregated around the bar and the tables at that end of the room, leaving the raised section of the pub near the windows empty. There were four rather mainstream ales on when I called in - Courage Best, Black Sheep Bitter, Ruddles and Greene King IPA. I had a half of the Black Sheep and thought it was in good order. The bar staff were quick to serve me and generally friendly. It's not really worth going out of your way for, but I thought it was a well kept little pub and you could certainly do far worse in this part of town.

Nice pub. Real ale on sale, mostly Black Sheep. Available for partys and functions. Comfortable seating. Friendly staff, who seem to know a lot of their regulars by name.