Royal Inn On The Park, E9

Built in 1862 for Truman’s as the Royal Hotel and given its current name around 1998, the location hasn’t changed in the few hours since the last review was submitted, on the edge of Victoria Park and Homerton village with its clutch of organic shops. This is really quite a grand stuccoed affair. The interior is lofty and spacious with three rooms, the ‘dining wing’ is probably a new addition and looks like something attached to a country club, with its bifold doors opening onto a large patio, which wraps around the south and east sides. The main room has large picture windows with brass rails but no curtains, though given that this is a Remarkable Pubs Co. (RPC) acquisition, I’d imagine that ordinarily there’d be tieback swag velvet curtains; perhaps it was laundry day. The floor is boarded and the walls and ceiling are white Anaglypta; a bit plain. The bar is painted black and field panelled with a marble top. However, the bar back is the showstopper here (see photo). It features five mottled pink and red marble columns with white marble capitals in the Corinthian style. At right is a Grecian-style pediment with dentils and another RPC trademark, a clock (there’s also one of their world maps). To the right is a frame to the next room, looking like a proscenium arch. Furniture here comprises settles arranged into semi-booths with little bottle vases containing a plant on tables; other chairs are normal. The next room is more of a lounge with a Chesterfield and marble fireplace with polychromatic tiles, above which is a large gilded mirror; CAMRA says the fire is used, a common feature of RPC venues. Both rooms feature spherical translucent white hanging lamps. There’s little décor, though the dining room has posters from the London Olympics past and to emphasise this, there’s a larger than life [fake?] marble statue of an Olympian throwing a discus, perhaps a homage to the main bar’s classical Greek entablature. Customers are the typical free-range organic types to be expected here. There’s a blackboard by the bar listing ales, brewer, ABV and price with Litovel listed, of course. Like other RPC pubs, this place has an unnatural obsession with Fuller’s dreary beers; Pride and Seafarer on pump with two unclipped pumps. The blackboard indicated Five Points XPA with two ABVs, so presumably is served on cask and not just on keg at £5.80 and fine once warmed up. I would have given this place a higher mark as this is a very fine pub, but RPC really needs to get more imaginative with its beers. There are loads of quality real ale breweries in Hackney, so why not use them?

Well lighted pub with entrances at both ends. Bar in middle and rooms off to the left and right. Five real ales, the strongest being Chiswick HSB @ 4.8% ABV.