The Sun of Camberwell, SE5

Official site of The Sun of Camberwell - suncamberwell.com

Official site of The Sun of Camberwell - suncamberwell.com

Corner pub close to King's College Hospital. It is owned by Antic and the front bar features tables and chairs similar to their other pubs. A larger dining room to the rear was much more formal. On a warm summer's evening, most punters were outside in a garden area to the rear. Timothy Taylor Landlord & Volden Session are the regular ales. Guests were Wye Valley HPA & Butty Bach. I hadn't had Butty Bach for some time and this one was surprisingly enjoyable. One of the better pubs of my day in South East London.

This is a surprisingly large pub near the eastern end of Coldharbour Lane, clearly opened out from a multiple room interior. The front part of the pub is a fairly open plan bar area, with seating available across a broad U-shaped area that fans out around the bar on the centre of the rear wall. The room is bare boarded and has plenty of mid-height stools and padded metal framed chairs serving tables of varying sizes, plus some banquettes to the front right and tub chairs a little further back. There are large windows down two sides of the room with blackboards in between them, listing food options and various upcoming events. The bar has a tongue and groove counter and wallpapered bar back lined with chunky wooden shelving. A fireplace stands to one side of the bar, next to some shelves full of ceramics and at least one TV screen which was switched off in favour of a pretty cool Afrobeat soundtrack. Moving past the right-hand side of the bar, the pub extends a long way back, into a separate dining room full of pre-set tables and an open kitchen to one side. There were three handpulls in action when I arrived, dispensing Sharps Doom Bar Volden Session and Wye Valley HPA, with a fourth promising Wye Valley Butty Bach ‘soon’. The HPA was a sensible £4.80 for a pint and in decent nick, whilst the bar staff were friendly and industrious. I liked this place, which I thought had good mass appeal thanks to a relatively traditional feeling main bar area, well appointed and separate dining facilities and a few well-kept ales. It maybe lacks that something special to make it worth seeking out in its own right but is a great option to have in mind if you’re in the area.

All the previous signage has gone for some reason, and if I hadn't looked through the window to see a pub obviously in operation I might have concluded that it had already bitten the dust. It doesn't seem to have changed much since the previous reviewers' visits. It still looks like a work in progress - maybe it's supposed to have that look - you never know with Antic, but I think it has a slightly more finished look than other posters encountered. As with most Antic pubs this one is quite open inside with plenty of space around the tables, and has the usual mixed bag of mismatched furnishings. There is a dartboard on one of the walls, but possibly not in use as there is a large Chesterfield sofa in front of it. Alongside it there are loads of pool, or possibly snooker, cues displayed on the wall, but I didn't see a pool table in here. There are also white ties displayed in glass frames above the fireplace. All typical Antic. The main bar stretches back and to the right of the servery, to a slightly raised area and then leading out to a courtyard at the rear. Of the five handpumps on the bar only two were in use when I dropped in shortly after opening time at 1600 on Monday afternoon. The two ales on were Wells Golden Cauldron and Caledonian Trojan Horse. This is not particularly good by Antic standards, although my pint of Golden Cauldron was in good condition. Being an Antic pub of long standing (i.e. operating for more than a year) I would expect them to do food, but I didn't see a menu. But perhaps there's not much call for food at 4.0 PM. I still quite like Antic pubs for some reason. I would suspect that I was just unlucky to find only two ales on when I visited, and would be prepared to give it another shot if in the area again.

The Sun of Camberwell is a decent sized corner pub that stands out with its bright yellow painted upper half. Once inside there is a large single L shaped room with the bar facing,the floor looked a bit of a mess with the left side bare boarded and the right side concreted,the seating was mainly normal tables and chairs and small tables a stools. There were five real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Wadworth Horizon which was quite a nice drink,the other beers were Adnams Explorer,St Austell Tribute,Jennings Cumberland and a beer from Beer Studio. There was some very loud background music playing during my Saturday dinner visit,there is a small outside seating area to the rear. I was happy enough having a drink in this pub. Pub visited 13/9/2014

Just reopened by that rescuer of lost pubs, Antic. This really is very much a work in progress, it felt like drinking in a squat but fair play to Antic for getting the doors open. Lots of work still to be done, inside and out, ceilings are down, floors unfinished, steel beams are exposed but given a couple of months I'd expect to see the usual quirky Antic style, they have already installed a selection of men's shirt collars and a row of poles of different lengths, the purpose of which I have no idea, and the obligatory wardrobe is already in situ. The bar is central with the room winding around to the rear to a more or lesser degree each side. The deeper area has a recently refurbished rooflight over, while the smaller return on the street corner side had a roaring fire going. This is a large pub and the original multi roomed layout can be imagined by the three remaining doors plus the one now converted to a window but retaining the mosaic step beneath. The remaining floors are rough bare boarded at the moment apart from the concreted area. All kinds of seating as you'd expect including what look like long school canteen tables with matching chairs. Service was friendly and my good luck comments seemed genuinely appreciated, four handpumps currently, Wadworths 6X, Brains SA, Deuchers IPA and Caledonian Autumn Real. I'd expect the range to increase slightly as the pub takes off. The kitchen isn't ready yet but they are serving good old bar snacks like pork pies, sausage rolls and scotch eggs. Good luck indeed, I wish there were more pubcos like Antic around. A 7 in hope.