The Victoria Inn, Peckham Rye, SE15

One of a number of backstreet pubs tucked away South of the railway line close to Peckham Rye station, this is a large, two room gastro pub that has been opened out a great deal. The front room is presented as a typical gentrified South London pub, with exposed floorboards, high tongue and groove panelling alongside plain painted walls and some modern glazed tiling around an open kitchen to the left. The seating around the main entrance is mostly in the form of high tables and stools plus some banquette booths under the front windows. The servery is to the rear and has an L-shaped counter with a highly decorative dark wood front and attractive matching bar back which includes a number of finely worked wooden features around a centrally positioned clock and some nice decorative glasswork, all offset by the presence of a stuffed ferret. The walls have been decorated with a selection of contemporary photographs depicting local scenes from nearby Rye Lane and various markets among others. The partitioning between front and rear rooms has been mostly lost over the years, but the narrowing of the rooms to the right of the bar does help the place maintain the feel of a two room pub, with the rear portion set up more as a formal dining area with lots of pre-set tables served by chairs and a load of padded banquettes. The walls are mostly bare brick which is an improvement on dark wood, as there is not a lot of natural light back here and the brickwork seems to help lighten up the feel of the room. More contemporary photography lines the walls and there is a nice bit of decorative tiling around the bar back which is along the front wall of this room. A good soundtrack of funk and soul classics played throughout my visit and a trip to the toilets became more complicated than it needed to be when I assumed a door signposted as ‘Uncle Albert’s’ must lead to the Gents – as it turns out, it leads to a private dining room, so be warned! Just the three cask ales on the bar – Greene King IPA and Yardbird and Sambrooks Junction – which is perhaps not too surprising from a backstreet Greene King pub. The Yardbird was £4.70 a pint and kept in remarkably good condition – I really surprised myself with how much I enjoyed this beer, which I’ve found average at best when previously sampled elsewhere. Two further handpulls were out of use and there was a modest craft keg selection as well. I didn’t really have any expectations for a Greene King gastro pub in a gentrified part of town, but I came away with a vary favourable impression of this place thanks to some comfortable seating, a nicely presented main bar area and some well-kept beer. It’s perhaps a bit too ‘foodie’ for traditionalists but works well as the sort of respectable establishment you can bring your non pub-going friends or family to.

The Victoria Inn is a corner pub that is painted in the modern battleship grey colour,which looks pretty drab in my opinion. Once inside i went into a largish L shaped room,there was tall bench seating to the front and side of the room with the other seating being small tables and chairs. There were two real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Adnams bitter which was decent enough,the other beer was Old Speckled Hen. This was a decent enough pub that was fairly smart inside. PUb visited 25/1/2014

The Victoria Inn is a decent sized corner pub with two bars that make up a U shaped interior that has had a recent makeover. The pub’s name changed from the Wishing Well in 2010 so I assume that the refurbishment took place around this time. To the left of the left hand bar is an open kitchen and the chalkboard bore a gastro type menu with pricing of around £10 for a main dish. In the right hand bar there is table football and a retro Pacman table along with a book case that holds plenty of reading material. There is also a door to the toilets and a large children’s room that stores some toddler toys and a plasma screen with the facility to show DVDs. I found the young ladies on duty to be friendly enough and the ales available during my recent Friday afternoon visit were Adnams’ Broadside, Sharps’ Spring Cask Pilsner, Greene King’s Old Golden Hen and Florence Brewery’s Bonobo which is brewed at the Florence pub down the road in Herne Hill. There were another two unused hand pumps and a standard and premium draught selection is available. Behind a waist high wall at the front of the pub is some café style seating that was very popular during my sunny Friday afternoon visit. I had a pleasant enough stay and would have no problem returning, although my visit was during school hours so I do not know if this place gets packed out with children during late afternoons and at the weekend.

Official pages at the Capital Pub Company site - www.capitalpubcompany.com

Official pages at the Capital Pub Company site - www.capitalpubcompany.com

I didn’t manage to get into this pub, as it apparently doesn’t open until 5.0 PM Mon to Wed. However, peering in the window I spotted a couple of handpumps on the bar counter bearing clips for Sharp’s Cornish Coaster, and Harvey’s Best. It looked as if it has had something of a makeover inside, but no doubt I’ll have the opportunity to take a closer look on some future occasion.

Randomness Guide to London - Victoria Inn entry