The Northcote Arms, E10

Despite Quinnos experience below I found a lively and seemingly thriving local community pub, I agree the grey walls don't exactly excite and clashes with the bright blue bar front. There's five handpumps on the bar and they seemed to be promoting local beers with three on, Beerblefish Best Bitter and Hoppy Pale Nos 19, which was very good, along with ELB Jamboree.Lots of pub events were advertised including comedy nights and regular Drag Queen nights, music and quiz's It was decent.

* CAMRA heritage pub. Looked closed from the outside and might as well have been, I was the only punter. All the woodwork has been grey glooped and, the leaded windows and glasswork aside, there’s little actual heritage value. Cold, no lights in the back bar or the gents. A single cask (Beerblefish, whoever the heck they are) which was awful, I poured it away outside. Crap - there’s nothing here to justify the trip out. Astonishingly, it’s GBG’24 listed.

Situated in E11 not E10, this backstreet pub is a bit of a devil to reach, my visit precipitated by its citation on CAMRA’s list of pubs with historic interiors, this being of Special National Historic Interest; I’ll leave the written and pictorial description to said site, but the mauve colour scheme has been toned down a bit. The place retains its separate two-room format and is part boarded, part carpeted, with some lovely stained glass clerestory windows. Customers were a mixed bunch with some friendly older locals, then younger more trendy incomers, a good Rolling Stones soundtrack playing on arrival, a place where drag acts strut their stuff come Sundays. There were two unclipped pumps, then one I couldn’t make out as I’d arrived in the wrong room and couldn’t be bothered to go outside to use a different entrance, making me look a bit foolish in the process, so having to make do with a half of Estrella at a painful £3.00, served in tandem by a friendly barman and barmaid. This is an ok pub which has a cask beer – albeit in the wrong room – and heritage interior; worth a look and would have got a higher mark with a better cask lineup.

Official site of The Northcote Arms - www.northcotee11.com

Official site of The Northcote Arms - www.northcotee11.com

Not too far a walk from Leyton station, this is a nice backstreet community pub that places an emphasis on serving good beer from local breweries. The pub has a multiple room interior which has now sadly been knocked about a fair bit, leaving it in a limbo state somewhere between separate rooms and open plan. A corner entrance leads you into the main bar area which is bare boarded and has some nice leaded windows down two sides of the room. There’s a small stage to the right of the entrance, perhaps used for live music, whilst pew and chair seating runs along the left-hand wall with a big blackboard at the far end which lists the pub’s numerous upcoming events. The bar is over to the rear right and has a long, curved counter broken part-way along by a small pillar, whilst the bar back now comprises a small island in the middle of the serving area thanks to the removal of a large section to allow you to see through to the rear bar. The right-hand wall has tongue and groove panelling and has been covered in a large number of portraits, although I wasn’t clear on the significance of the various subjects, and this is all topped off by three highly decorative stained-glass windows which are a great eye-catching feature. A doorway leads through to a lounge-style bar with carpeting, floral pattern wallpaper and some comfy looking chairs. The room narrows as it passes the bar, partly thanks to a staircase that intrudes into the room on the opposite wall, creating a bit of an unfortunate pinch point. Moving on, you reach an opened out rear space, similarly decorated but with more seating and its own access to the bar. Music was playing quietly in the background on a Saturday evening visit and surprisingly there were quite a few kids in the rear bar when I arrived a little after 7pm. The bar supports five handpulls but two of these were unclipped, leaving a choice of Three Sods Dark Magus, Signature Brew Roadie and Howling Hops Tropical Deluxe plus a few interesting craft keg options. The Dark Magus was £4.00 a pint but poured rather flat, despite the best efforts of the friendly barman. Thankfully it still tasted reasonably good and I think I’ll just have to chalk that one up to bad luck. This is a nice pub that seems to have plenty going for it and is popular with the locals as a result. The dubious beer seems to have been a bit of an anomaly, so I’m prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt on that and suggest that this is worth the short detour from Leyton High Road to visit.