The Paxton Arms Hotel, Crystal Palace, SE19

This is a large, three room pub close to Crystal Palace train station. The pub was badly damaged by German Bombers back in 1944 and a board outside explains how one of the pub’s customers that day, John Markham, helped to find survivors after the raid was over. When the pub reopened in 1955, he was the first customer to be served. The pub nowadays retains its interesting three bar layout and some of the furnishings look like they’ve been around since the reopening. Entering into the left hand bar, you find yourself in a sparsely decorated room with carpet, a few long tables and some old books on a shelf. A TV screen was showing Formula One racing and one punter was enjoying a game of darts against himself. Moving through to the rear of the pub, there is a small room dominated by a pool table. The carpet is threadbare and the banquette seating is particularly tatty, but there is some nice wood paneling and a small tiled fireplace as well as a TV screen showing football. Music was playing quite loudly in this room, but not in the others. The final room is on the right hand side of the building and is split level with standard seating on the raised section at the front and a few bar stools and a solitary table down by the servery. The hand pumps are in this room and there was also an excellent cheese platter on the bar counter for people to get stuck into. This room also had a TV on showing the football. There is a decent sized beer garden to the rear, but given that it was dark when I visited, I didn’t properly explore. I spotted some CAMRA literature in the pub, including London Drinker, so I was hoping for a good pint and had to choose from Brains Rev James and Merlin’s Oak and Adnams Southwold Bitter. I gave the Merlin’s Oak a try, but ended up disappointed and thought it was probably a bit past its best. This place certainly has a fair bit of character and I quite enjoyed meandering between the various rooms. I’m hoping the poor pint was a one off as this would make a decent stop off for anyone waiting for a train who doesn’t fancy the uphill slog to the Grape and Grain.