Goldsmiths Arms, Penge, SE20

Venue 7 of the evening for me in Penge and visited at 8.15pm. Whilst there was some background music it was non de script enough and low enough volume to not be distracting. The hand pump choices were pretty interesting for the type of place in the area. The Volden session pale ale was on offer but I didn’t try. There was a red ale called Diamond Geezer from the By the Horns Brewing Company and my choice, boringly familiar but decidedly safe, for me, the LPA from Southwark Brewing Co which was perfectly good. This reminded me a lot of a pub called the Royal Standard over Blackheath way in terms of layout, atmosphere and offering but that might be they were both visited end of evening in unfamiliar areas! Given one of the postcode Penge area venues is closed on a Monday evening this is the penultimate venue of this Penge crawl for me.

A large lump of a pub and the dated tag still holds true, the pub itself was pretty quiet but the beer garden was quite busy. Still quite tatty inside, maybe intentional but gives it a run down feel. Two cask beers available, Liberation Ale and Volden Pale, the volden was not at its best. Not a pub I'd rush back to.

Big old fashioned pub with separate drinking areas.Bit tatty and dated but busy considering its near a Wetherspoons.Three cask beers on inc Titanic Plum Porter.Tried the Plum Porter but just don't get whats special about this beer.

The Goldsmiths arms is a decent looking pub that is just down and across the road from the Pawleyne Arms. Once inside there is an L shaped room which is bare boarded,there are tall tables and stools to the front and normal tables and chairs elsewhere,there is a small raised area to the front left. There were three real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Purity Mad Goose which was a decent drink,the other beers were Adnams Mosaic and Old Speckled Hen. The pub was fairly busy on my late Saturday afternoon visit,the background music playing was crap. This was a decent enough pub to have a drink in,shame about the music. Pub visited 14/5/2016

Official site of Goldsmiths Arms - goldsmithsarms.com

Official site of Goldsmiths Arms - goldsmithsarms.com

This fairly run of the mill boozer, just off the main road through Penge, was reopened by the Antic pub company in November 2015. You enter into a spacious bare boarded front room with an L shaped servery with a simple counter and nice decorative dark wood bar back on the right hand side. High tables and stools can be found towards the front of the room, with a handful of other tables elsewhere, including one made from a tatty, paint splattered work bench to the left, with a vice still attached. The room has scruffy dark panelled walls and a nicely patterned ceiling and has been decorated in the usual eclectic Antic fashion, which means lots of clocks, stuffed animals, tankards, kettles, lamps and other such bric-a-brac throughout. Board games and local events magazines were available on a dresser. To the rear is a smarter second room with more modern looking floorboards and wallpaper. Seating is in the form of standard tables and chairs for the most part, but there are a couple of long banquette booths to the left, all of which makes it an ideal room for those wanting food. Various bits and bobs were on show in here including some modern art prints, a display cabinet full of trophies and ceramics and a battered old fireplace that sadly has not been restored and doesn’t do the room any favours. From here there is access to the beer garden. I failed to notice on my way into the pub that there is another room to the right of the entrance, partially hidden behind a curtain, but offering a real mix of seating options and lots of retro décor including numerous old paintings. A good, varied soundtrack played throughout my visit and there was a real buzz around the pub, despite the fact that it was quite quiet on a Sunday afternoon. There were just three beers available on this visit – Dark Star Hophead, Wells Dogfish IPA and Purity Mad Goose. The Hophead was thankfully in excellent condition, although I was served a short measure by the brusque barman. It felt a bit like this was still a work in progress (although many Antic pubs can feel that way at times) and that the pub wasn’t quite functioning as it should, although it had been open for a good six months by the time of my visit. I enjoyed the beer and thought the décor was fun, if a bit on the messy side, but the service could have been better and the place seemingly needs more time to settle in. One to keep an eye on.