Rose & Crown, SW4

The picnic tables sitting under some hanging baskets outside the traditional frontage make the Rose and Crown look very inviting. Unfortunately the basic interior does not live up to initial expectations. Seating down the right is separated from the bar area and there is some seating under the front windows. The bar is located in the left rear corner and there are a couple of plasma screens, one of which was powered up for some BBC rolling news. This was muted in favour of some background music. During my visit on a recent Saturday afternoon a premium keg range was available from the bar that supports eight hand pumps. These were drawing Purity brewing’s UBU, Hogs Back’s T.E.A., Greene King’s Olde Trip, St Edmund’s Golden Beer, Titanic brewery’s iceberg, Morland’s Old Hoppy Hen, Dark Star’s Hophead and Ruddles County. I found the governor to be polite and there were a couple of characters at the bar that added some atmosphere. I’d have no problem returning here if passing, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to revisit.

Set in the middle of Clapham Old Town, the Rose and Crown is a pub with a lot of potential, but seems to have suffered at the hands of the Greene King interior design team. The pub has a single room layout, with a partly carpeted, partly bare boarded floor and half panelled walls with the top half painted a rather dull shade of cream. Some nice upholstered benches stand beneath the front windows whilst a row of pews and standard chairs serve a few tables down the right hand side, in a space screened from most of the room by a couple of partitioning sections of wall. Unfortunately, sitting on this side leaves you with the sensation of drinking in a corridor, rather than in the main body of a pub. A fairly regular L-shaped, dark wood servery stands in the rear left corner, with no particularly interesting features worth mentioning. A number of large, informative posters detailing things like beer styles and the distribution of breweries across Europe cover the walls, all in the same black and white style, thereby failing to add a much needed dash of colour to the walls. A nice tiled fireplace stands on the left hand wall and this is arguably the most interesting feature the pub has, which isn’t saying much. There is a small garden to the rear and a large front pavement area which most customers were taking advantage of on my sunny Sunday afternoon visit. Greene King beers obviously take a degree of precedence on the bar, with St Edmunds, Gold Ridge, Ruddles County and Old Hoppy Hen lined up alongside three guest ales in the shape of Dark Star Hophead, Camerons Gold Bullion and Cotswold Spring OSM. The Hophead set me back a startling £4.00, but was in good condition. The jovial landlord held court at the bar and seemed to be a real asset to the pub, enthusing about his beers and enjoying some good banter with regulars and newcomers alike – an enthusiasm which notably wore off on his other bar staff. I couldn’t really warm to the bland interior design in this pub, but I did eventually come round somewhat thanks to the hearty welcome and decent range of well kept ales. As Greene King pubs go, this one certainly bucks the trend by not serving Abbot or IPA and this seems like reason enough to give it a try when in the area.

Nice locals pub but a bit dull inside.Good tiled frontage.Nice clean fresh toilets.Seven beers on inc Butcome -Mathews pale,Milestone -rich ruby and a really nice Brentwood-golden galaxy.

This is one of London's hidden gems. A true local, efficiently run by an enthusiastic landlord. No fewer than six real ales were on tap last week, only one being from Greene King! A great omission from the local Camra branch not to include it in the 2014 Good Beer Guide.

Situated in an enviable location just off Clapham Common. The building has an impressive (if unattractive) Victorian glazed brown tile frontage on what looks like a Georgian structure. My visit came in the middle of a large internal refurbishment so hard to tell much about inside, beyond it being fairly small and the presence of much dark wood pew seating. Six pumps with ales five on, nearly all Greene King (including a house beer which is presumably a re-badge of Morlands Original – the barstaff confirmed it was a GK brew) bar a welcome sighting of Dark Star Hophead which was in good nick. Enthusiastic barmaid offered to top-up my pint even though I’d taken huge slurp of it between it being plonked down and me paying. A selection of papers available, alongside a telly showing the football. Won’t leave a rating due to the on-going refurb but it certainly seemed to have the trappings of a decent boozer.

I have developed quite a fondness for this establishment, the best in the area and certainly the best in a triangle of pubs in Clapham Old Town (the others being the Prince of Wales and The Sun). Greene King do a very good job of rotating the ale selection in here, although Abbot and St Edmunds are fixtures. On a summer evening the outside will be busy with people both seated and standing, and inside in the winter it is warm and cosy. Watch out for the pub cat - I've nearly sat on it at least twice. Doesn't, to the best of my knowledge, do food.

The ale selection was better than I expected having been confronted with a Greene King sign at the door, with Abbot, St Edmund’s, Wolfe Brewery Battle of Britain, Everard’s Tiger and a house ale called Rosie’s (brewed by GK?) on. I was in on Wednesday lunchtime, and there was no sign of menus or anyone eating. The exterior of this pub is quite striking with its dominating red brick facade. Inside it still has a traditional olde worlde feel with its dark varnished wood panelling and furnishings of mainly solid wood settles, some small stools, normal chairs and rectangular wooden tables. The decor has a touch of WWII about it – as well as the Battle of Britain ale, one of the doors apparently leads to an air raid shelter, and I also spotted a framed classic “keep calm and carry on” poster. It was pretty quiet when I was, and worryingly, although perhaps predictably, the gastropub over the road was doing a much better trade. But I liked this quiet friendly pub and would be happy to drop in for another pint sometime.