Streeties, Canning Town, E16

This is an old Victorian backstreet locals' pub that was originally the Prince Alfred. It gained its rather unusual current name in favour of an ex-landlord called Bobby Street. It has clearly been extended in both the Shirley Street and Ford Street elevations; the extensions have brown tiles on the exterior whereas the original pub has (I think) better quality green tiles. The Ford St extension houses the current toilets, whereas the Shirley St one seems to have enlarged the pub area. There are four doors; the corner one and one of those in Ford St are unused, and the one currently in use in Shirley St had once led to the jug and bottle bar. There's still an old Watney, Combe, Reid sign on the wall. Inside it's quite plain and simple. There's some nice etched mirrors in the four bay bar back, but other stuff, including the linoleum (or something similar) topped bar counter looks inter-war. It's carpeted, has a handful of normal tables and chairs, TVs of course, plus a blue baize covered pool table. All very straightforward and traditional. Perhaps less traditional is the "brewer's rustic", with fake black battens on the ceiling. Even less traditional is the parrot, or paraakeet perhaps, in a large cage in the corner, and the fish tank behind the servery. There's no real ale of course, and I saw no sign of food at Friday lunchtime. In fact I've failed to find any pub in the Canning Town area that does real ale. Nevertheless I liked the feel of this traditional backstreet boozer. The landlady was very friendly, being happy to talk about what she knew of the history of the pub. A deent real ale would be a massive plus, but I'm sure there's no call for it here.

A very locals, local. Lots of friendly banter. Bit hard to find.

The sort of back-street boozer that is almost something you would only now expect to read about in a history book. I obviously caught it at an unusual time because it was being rapidly spruced up, and is certainly the only pub I have ever been in where painting was going on around (and indeed over) the customers on the few pieces of furniture which weren't covered over by sheets. It would appear that there had been a recent bereavement with somebody connected to the place, but was being kept open for the loyal regulars. No real ale, so I opted for the keg Flowers IPA (£2.68). Overall a somewhat curious experience, but the locals were friendly enough and one certainly got a real sense of community spirit.

The name ‘Streeties’ suggested to me that this was going to be some crappy bar, but thankfully I was very wrong as this is a typical back street boozer with a friendly enough governor and seemingly harmless local crowd. It is an L-shaped pub with a pool table in one end and a dartboard in the other and a plasma screen is in the centre corner for Sky Sports etc. It’s not the biggest place, but they still managed to comfortably fit in a quiz machine, golf machine and fruit machine. There’s no real ale, but the Guinness was very good and didn’t break the bank. I liked it in here and wouldn’t hesitate returning if the opportunity arose.

Typical East London street corner Boozer the likes of which are fast dissapearing.Single bar with a pool table at one end. Very friendly and helpful locals who relate stories of how many pubs have recently closed and been demolished in the area.Unfortunately no real ale