The Abbeville, Clapham Common, SW4

This is a nice two bar backstreet pub that has retained a sense of its original layout despite the undoubted temptation to rip the place apart to cater for such a gentrified neighbourhood. You enter through the right-hand door to a raised bar area with the servery down the left side and some very limited seating to the front and right, mainly in the shape of basic tables and chairs. The bar has a nice dark wood panelled counter and matching mirrored bar back. Steps to the rear take you down to a bare boarded room that connects the two sides of the pub, where you’ll find some small upholstered banquette booths to the right, basic tables and chairs through the centre and then more of the same beyond a partitioning wall to the left, with a fireplace that serves both sides of the dividing wall. The walls are a mix of whitewashed bare brick or half panelled with distressed painted uppers, all decorated with lots of random pictures including Vogue magazine images, modern art prints, landscape photos and a few portraits. There’s an open kitchen to the rear left, in a space where seating has been kept to a minimum in order to facilitate the movement of the waiting staff. A truly crap AOR soundtrack warbled away in the background, turning the whole visit into some sort of unnecessary feat of endurance. Things weren’t too much better at the bar, where a lone Sambrooks Wandle pump clip signalled the only cask option, despite turned Landlord and Harvey Best clips on other pumps. Craft beer from the likes of Brixton, Camden, Beavertown and Timothy Taylor was a scant, overpriced consolation, so I stuck with the Wandle, which was served to me by one of the speedy but sullen bar team. It was in reasonable nick and paired nicely with the beige tunes still playing in the background. I thought this place had plenty of promise, thanks to the nice multi-room interior, thoughtful decor and comfortable seating, but the lack of a decent cask ale and the miserable service let the side down and I was happy to polish my pint off and make a quick exit before Foreigner made their inevitable appearance on the stereo.

The Abbeville has an entry in the latest (2021) Good Beer Guide. It serves a couple of real ales, but then do many hundreds of other pubs in London. I'm a little surprised to see this one in there, when there are many better. Nevertheless, I arrived shortly before midday on a weekday for my maiden visit. The pub does have the advantage of opening at 11am. Service was swift and I quickly had a Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter. The other ale was Timothy Taylor Landlord. As the previous review says, you enter up some steps and can pass through the bar area to some further downward steps. However, I decided to take residence in the small bench seating area next to the front windows, from where we could see the goings on in the street. A radiator was blasting away on the wall, reminding me why outdoor drinking is still not particularly welcome at this time of the year in England. Food appears to be popular here, but we didn't indulge. Fairly middle of the road sort of place that wouldn't be a destination pub for me.

They still have that strange layout whereby as you enter you go up a few stairs to access the bar counter on the left, and then immediately down a few stairs to the seating areas at the back, involving more stairs. It really is an up and down place. There were a few tables outside on the pavement, most of which were occupied on yet another warm and fine October afternoon. Clearly it’s a shop conversion (two shops by the look of it). It’s got the look of a food led gastro bar, although the presence of two ales – Timothy Taylor Landlord and Sambrook’s Wandle (£3.50 a pint) – is encouraging. The bar counter had those big glass jars of olives, nuts, etc, that you tend to find in gastropubs. They had food available when I was in on Monday afternoon, and although I didn’t get to see a menu I did see a couple tucking into some decent looking nosh. Obviously it wasn’t very busy on a Monday afternoon, but I suspect that the bar counter would get congested at busier times, although perhaps most customers opt for table service. This is a decent enough little pub even if it is gastro orientated, but not really special enough to warrant making a great effort to seek out.