Hagen & Hyde, Balham, SW12

An uber-trendy sort of place (did I really say that?) as you might expect from Antik. A long and dark shop conversion with extremely arty décor, split level at the rear to provide a restaurant area and with a garden at the back. Not exactly to my taste but it did carry a good range of beers, including a couple from Antik's Croydon-based Volden Brewery.

Official site of Hagen & Hyde - hagenandhyde.com

Official site of Hagen & Hyde - hagenandhyde.com

Shop conversion with a quirky split level interior. 10 real ale taps 5 on.

Room in front of bar to right side, then splits to up and lower areas behind the bar. Four or five real ales, all weak in strength.

Definitely a typical Antic pub.Busy and warm on a cold night.Must use dodgy builder on the refurb as they seem to have left the pub half finished.Some nice touches though.Beers on cask from Volden,London Beer Factory and the pale imitation that is now Jaipur.

This is a shop converted premises in a prominent position on Balham High Road, just a minutes walk from the station. The venue opened back in 1997 and was originally known as Eclipse and then Blithe Spirit, before being taken over by Antic and opening in its present guise in the summer of 2013. This place seems to have pulled out all the stops in terms of quirky décor, with the front window looking a bit like a dressmakers shop thanks to a full sized dummy and some sewing machines being to the fore. The main room is bare boarded with a typical Antic-style undressed ceiling and bare brick walls throughout. All sorts of crazy items can be seen around the room including more sewing machines, paintings of flowers, a handbag collection, pairs of stiletto shoes, old lamps and numerous books. The light shades in the front left corner are made from tatty upturned umbrellas, which looks a lot better than it sounds. There are sofas down one side of the room with a long banquette and low stools serving the other side. The bar is in the rear right corner and has a most impressive decorative bar back, the origin of which we can only guess at. Stairs here lead up to a mezzanine style restaurant area which appeared to be empty when we arrived just after the Sunday lunch peak period. Beneath is a split level, partly carpeted lounge area with long banquettes and a few standard tables and chairs. A large screen on the back wall was showing the afternoon's Premier League fixture and a jazzy soundtrack parped along in the background throughout our stay. I was quite impressed with the choice of ales on this visit and had a tough time picking from Thornbridge Jaipur, Twickenham Naked Ladies, Clarence and Fredericks Single Hop Amarillo, XT 14 Saison Pale and Williams Bros Seven Giraffes. The other half was rather taken by the pump clip on the latter so I decided to give it a try, but unfortunately it seemed to be a bit past its best - perhaps coming to the end of the barrel? The bar staff all seemed very friendly and welcoming - service with a smile certainly seems to be the ethos here. It was a shame that the beer I tried was on the poor side, as I'm fairly sure they know how to keep good beer and we both liked the relaxed feel of the place. I warmed to this pub straight away and I guess the only way to be sure about the beer quality is to give it another try the next time I'm in Balham.

The previous reviewer said that it had an Antic feel to it - well, it's probably got more of one about it now since it's been taken over by Antic. As is usual with this chain, there's odd decor around the place, such as antique Singer sewing machines and the like. It has a fairly odd design - you enter into the main bar area which of course has its fair share of sofas. behind the main bar area down a few steps is another large room, and up a few steps is a third large room above it which was slightly more posh-looking (not that posh-looking and Antic should really feature in the same sentence) with flowers on the tables. Although some of the handpumps were not in use, there were still about a half dozen or so ales on, and I went for the stonking 5.8% Belleville Tie-Dye Rye. They do food of course, but I didn't get to see a menu. If you like the "shabby chic" Antic approach to decor then you'll like this pub. But of course they do decent real ales at reasonable prices, so this is one that I wouldn't mind revisiting sometime.