Duke Of Edinburgh, SW9

Official site of Duke Of Edinburgh - dukeofedinburghpub.com

Official site of Duke Of Edinburgh - dukeofedinburghpub.com

This is another one to add to Brixton's collection of well kept historic back street boozers. In this instance, we have an inter war Trumans pub which retains some of the original livery on the austere exterior. Inside, there is a two bar layout, with a fairly small public bar to the front and a long lounge to the rear. The front room is roughly square shaped and has exposed floorboards and retro styled wallpaper throughout. Standard tables and chairs have been arranged over to the left whilst hard benches are squeezed into the front right corner with a pool table dominating this side of the room. A small brick fireplace with a large mirror above it acts as a focal point and there is a simple tongue and groove panelled bar counter to the rear right with a couple of TV screens competing for your attention whilst a decent jazz soundtrack plays in the background. Moving through into the lounge, you find the servery running down the right hand side of a long, narrow room with the same bare floorboards in evidence. However, the room is notably different from the public bar by virtue of the excellent oak panelling found throughout as well as some attractive stained glass windows. The bar appears to have its original counter which has a very unusual check-tiled trough running around the bottom - a feature I'm not sure I've ever seen before. The rest of the bar area was less impressive such as the relatively plain mirrored bar back and the vases of twigs which partially obscured some of the keg fonts. Pews and chairs run along the left hand wall and at the far end there was a cosy looking spot with sofas and armchairs in front of a nice fireplace. A second fireplace can be found at the front of the room underneath a rather appropriate old Trumans mirror and this room had its TV screens turned off, although the same jazz tunes were playing. I noted three hand pumps on the bar, but all had revered clips on this visit so I found myself ordering a pint of Five Points Pale on keg dispense, which set me back a fiver but was at least pretty tasty. The barmaid was very pleasant and there was a good crowd in on my Wednesday evening visit - perhaps comprising people out on their work Christmas parties. There are several interesting old pubs like this down the back streets of Brixton which have taken me far too long to discover. This place is well worth a look for it's well preserved interior and I got the impression that I was rather unfortunate to miss out on their cask ales on this occasion. I enjoyed snooping round here for a while and the place seems to avoid the usual Brixton Academy crowds, making it a viable option for a quiet pre-gig pint or two.