The King & Co, Clapham, SW4

As the King’s Head, this dates from at least the early 19th century, renamed in September 2014, the fascia advertising that it’s affiliated with the Portobello brewery. The interior has been substantially modernised to the point where it doesn’t really look like a pub, with modern bar back, open kitchen with some cooking smells, yellow and green colour scheme with some bare brick, mixed but conventional furniture, eclectic ephemera and young trendy customers, the side let down by four very sweary and loud mouthed yoofs. A beer board displayed offerings along with price and ABV, 18 taps dispensing ‘craft’ and the likes of fizz, then three cask offerings oddly omitting a Portobello option, but otherwise Broadside, Sambrook’s Drop Kick and Five Points Railway Porter at a reasonable £2.70 a half and good. Although now lacking in pub ambience though better than the Coach & Horses, the whole isn’t too bad with the best – although not great – cask choice yet sampled in SW4.

This is a well regarded, Good Beer Guide regular, operated by the Portobello Brewery, with a bare boarded, L-shaped interior and a nice balance between its food and drink led sides. You enter into a broad front seating area with high tables and stools to the right and lots of standard tables and chairs through the centre and to the front, where there you can also find a short drinking ledge under the front windows, with lots of potted plants on their sills. A pleasant fireplace stands to the left with a grill around its hearth and a bunch of candles in the actual fireplace, beneath a nice dark wood mantle with a plain mirror above and some wing-back armchairs in front. Beer boards on either side of the fireplace list the extensive draught range and the bar is along the rear wall with a garish orange(I think - the low light made it hard to tell) tongue and groove panel counter and fake brick bar back. To the right there is an open kitchen serving hatch reminding you that this place majors on food as well as its good beer. The pub extends to the rear down the left-hand side, with lots more tables and chairs through a pleasant space with another smaller fireplace which has a brick chimney and a cool table top pub game to one side. Lots of mirrors and decorative lights make this a pleasant, cosy spot to try and bag a seat in. A decent funk and Motown soundtrack played in the background throughout the course of my stay and I noticed a shelving unit full of board games next to the entrance. There are six handpulls on the bar, but two were out of action, leaving a choice between Adnams Ghost Ship, Brockley Red Ale, Portobello Market Porter and a lone real cider. The pub also offers a vast keg selection including plenty from local brewers such as Brick, Mondo and Brixton as well as a few from further afield like Magic Rock and Wild Beer. The staff were all very friendly and made everyone feel welcome, as well as serving me with a great pint of the Market Porter for £4.40. It’s clear why this place has graced the pages of the Good Beer Guide in recent years, as they serve up well kept pints of local ale in a pleasant pub environment that isn’t dominated by their restaurant. I found this a nice spot to relax over a few pints and would definitely consider dropping in again in passing.

Second stop on a short crawl of Clapham and Brixton was the King & Co, I place I'd visited when it was called the 100 Pub and have been since, probably in its Antic days (although I don't recall). With track and trace formalities complete, we embarked on choosing our beers (or cider in my case). The two real ales were Sambrook's Pumphouse Pale & Portobello Central Line Red, whilst the real cider was Abrahall's Wild Berries, a new one for me. In addition, there was a good selection of craft beers. Food is also served. A decent pub that I will probably return to again.

I paid my first visit to this pub since the SW Pub Company took it over from Antic. It's obviously now less shabby than it was, with most of the knick-knacks around the place having been given the heave-ho, though I did spot some sort of bagatelle type game on the wall near the fireplace on the left. There's a bit of outside seating at the front. However, there are some massive pluses. The only furnishings are normal tables and chairs, and the ale choices were excellent. There were five real ales on - Whitstable Pearl of Kent; Rooster's Franklin; Liquid Mistress Red IPA; something called Little Hopster; and ELB Foundation (£4.20 a pint). There was also Newton Court Gaping Goose cider on handpump. I was told that they do food, but I didn't see a menu as I was in too early (around 4.0 PM) to see the evening menu. This is easily the best pub in this part of Clapham. It's certainly worth a re-visit.

Official site of The King & Co - thekingandco.uk

Official site of The King & Co - thekingandco.uk

Reopened in its present form for just under a year, this is a modern-style alehouse with mostly basic canteen-type furniture around the reversed 'J'-shape bar. Has a open kitchen at one end, with the cuisine seeming to change at intervals (currently a "Vinn Goute Seychelles" pop-up, whatever that means...). Also has a few tables out on the front patio terrace. A total of six handpumps on the counter, dispensing two real ales from Bad Co - Love over Gold and Wild Gravity, Little Hopster (£3.80), Cloudwater Pale, Marble Bitter and a cider. Several less-common imported keg offerings too (e.g. Schremser Hausbier and Founders All Day IPA). NB - Bottled beers, ciders and wines available to take away at a 25% discount).

They had on three ales when I visited on Saturday afternoon – Bateman’s Rosey Nosey; A black IPA called Loki or something similar, and Purple Moose Madog’s Ale (£3.50 a pint), plus a draught cider, with a couple of handpumps unused. This is not particularly good by Antic standards, but I wasn’t complaining as the Madog’s Ale was a super drop of beer. No sign of food, but Antic pubs usually do food so perhaps we hit this pub between food times. But everything else about the pub was pure Antic. There were all kinds of odd things about the place – a sideboard covered with plasticine models (kids’ playthings perhaps?), old clocks, a lemon yellow stepladder hung on a wall (presumably a decorative feature, but you can never be entirely sure in an Antic pub), a shelf bearing old vinyl 45s, and a couple of old bagatelle boards hung above a fireplace. There were a few more traditional things, such as a (Welsh?) dresser, a piano, and a bar billiards table. Old pump clips are displayed all over the place – presumably of beers available at one time – and the bus ticket themed wallpaper was a new one on me. The trademark mismatched furniture is here as well. It’s quite small by Antic standards, with just the one room surrounding the central horseshoe bar. I usually (but not always) like Antic pubs, and this is one of the nicer ones that I’ve visited. It didn’t have the random look that several of them have. It almost looks as if someone planned what it should look like! I would be very happy to visit again.