The Northcote, SW11

This pub has had an upmarket makeover since it’s been taken over by Geronimo Inns. The larger part of the single room has an unusual rope/string carpet on the floor, with the area nearest to the bar counter being bare-boarded. It has the usual mix of furnishings – high tables/stools; sofas/armchairs with a low table; and unusually some old school (literally) chairs, plus normal tables including some ancient looking solid wooden affairs. There are jars of pickled eggs and onions on the bar counter, and on top of a screen cum partition in the middle of the room I spotted some more large jars, presumably as a decoration, containing dried chillies and some other dried fruit that I didn’t recognise. There were only a couple of things in the way of decor worth mentioning – some old, and perhaps iconic, LP sleeves mounted on the wall on the left, and a parody of a portrait (looked a bit like Goya’s Duke of Wellington, although I wouldn’t swear to it and the staff didn’t know), with a custard pie in his face. Most odd – make up your own mind, as I’ve uploaded a picture of it. There was the inevitable TV screen high up on one of the walls, but switched off, and some laid back music being played, but not too loudly. There were four ales on – Sharp’s Doom Bar and Cornish Coaster, Hogsback Summer Ale; and Adnam’s Broadside. The Cornish Coaster was pretty good, albeit at £3.30 a pint, and the barman didn’t make any effort to serve a full pint, leaving a good half- inch plus of froth on the top. I was given the choice of a straight glass or jug though. The food menu was a single sheet of paper , and contained nothing that could be described as simple pub grub. I had a steak and onion sandwich – at £8, or £9.50 with a decent portion of fries. This is not usually my sort of pub, but I thought this one was OK, and I actually preferred it to its somewhat downmarket predecessor.

Been taken over by Geronimo Inns