The Pride of Spitalfields, E1

Tucked away on a side street. Proper old school no nonsense pub. 5 real ales and food served.

A lovely throwback to a different era kind of pub. Just off Brick Lane, so worth checking out before a bang average curry is consumed. Packed on a Monday Night - people air guitaring inside, sat on the kerb outside. Excellent ESB.

29 April 2007 Big screen showing cricket replay Sat pm with volume way too loud, but Brewers Gold still exceptional. 28 April 2007 Outstanding. Buzzy, busy, but not overcrowded yesterday at 13:30, and everyone happy and chatting! Crouch Vale Brewers Gold, Sharp's Doom Bar, Pride, ESB & lots of old pump clips suggesting good rotation policy but the Brewers Gold which I found delicious (light fruity summer ale) is a constant. 'Mary's Pantry' next to the bar is dispensing down-to-earth grub at silly prices mostly <£3, eg Ham,Egg,Chips £2.50. The place has a couple of pavement tables outside & an upright piano in the corner; don't know whether they ever get a knees up-going of an evening! If you want to eat on the hoof, the Beigel bakery is toward the north end of Brick lane and their salt beef beigel or sandwich with mustard & pickled cucumber is heavenly.

Hidden away in Heneage Street this pub offers welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of Brick Lane just around the corner.A traditional pub in every sense of the word,I've never had a poor visit.The Crouch Vale Brewers Gold was as good as ever,also available in the ale stakes were Sharps Doombar,Fullers E.S.B. and London Pride.Can get busy at times being a small pub but well worth the effort.

In a quiet side street off Brick Lane, in London’s East End, is The Pride of Spitalfields. It’s a small traditional unpretentious single bar freehouse with two adjoining rooms. The main bar is comfortably furnished with red velour seats and bar stools, a carpet and lace curtains. The light coloured wall opposite the small bar counter is decorated with old photographs of the area. A CAMRA mirror sits proudly above an exposed brick fireplace. In one corner is a piano, although I didn’t see anything to indicate it was regularly played. High up above, and to one side of the bar, are a number of Fullers beer jugs and pots. A separate room on the right of the main entrance is a smaller room and features dark wood panelling and an old Ind Coope Romford Ale mirror. Place mats suggest that this area is principally intended for diners. The food counter – Mary’s Pantry – is next to the bar and serves food of the ham, egg and chips / omelette and chips variety. On my recent Friday lunchtime visit, the pub was quite busy with Mary’s Pantry churning out chips, chips and more chips with burgers, omelettes etc to a mixture of both students and office workers. It is, however, most definitely first and foremost a pub with an encouraging proportion of the wet trade being for one of the 5 real ales. 5 pumps were serving Crouch Vale Brewers Gold, Fullers London Pride and ESB, plus Sharps Doom Bar and Winter Ale. Although it’s not a Fullers pub and not branded as such, several promotional enamel plaques on the wall outside indicate an emphasis on their beers and they have always been present on my rare visits. The Crouch Vale Brewers Gold was in excellent form and I wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity of a pint of ESB at a cheap £ 3, although I have to report that it wasn’t desperately good. London Pride is offered at £ 2.90p – certainly cheaper than you will find it in most Fullers tied houses. The pub features regularly in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide. In an area of London where, not surprisingly, there isn’t a lot of demand for pubs, this is a true oasis and it’s well worth making the effort to track down

Wonderful old style English pub with great real ale. If you get a seat you may have to share it with the pub cat, he won't be budged.

The Pride of Spitalfields is a classic, two room East-end boozer, just off Brick Lane. The entrance takes you into the main bar which is carpeted with banquette and low stool seating. At the end of the bar there is a servery called Mary's Pantry which seems to offer sandwiches as well some bits aimed at tourists such as Pride of Spitalfields T-shirts, although it appeared to be shut on my recent visit. The room has a nice brick fireplace and the obligatory upright piano and there are collections of pump clips and old bottles as well as plenty of photos depicting life on the nearby Grand Union Canal. A large projector screen was rolled up at the back of the room and there was a rather incongruous mirror ball on the ceiling, but sports coverage was confined to a small TV in the other room which was showing cricket, whilst thoughts of a disco were put to bed by the 60's music soundtrack on a skipping CD. The second room is quite small and provides some additional seating. There are five hand pumps on the bar, but only four were on offering Fuller's London Pride and ESB, Sharp's Doom Bar and Crouch Vale Brewer's Gold. My Brewer's Gold was in good shape and poured by a friendly barmaid who was very welcoming to regulars and strangers alike. It's a little odd to step out of such a traditional British pub like this and find yourself in the middle of Brick Lane, but perhaps that's part of its charm. Either way, this pub is well worth a look if you're in the area for a curry or otherwise.