The Dickens Inn, E1

This is a very big pub set across numerous floors in a former warehouse building on St Katherine’s Docks. The building has been cleverly reworked to make the building look a bit like an old galleried inn, when viewed from the front at least, and is quite a sight on approach. Inside, you find yourself in a large, stone-floored main bar area, which has a long servery along the back wall. Seating here was mostly confined to the far left end of the room, with a few more options along the front wall and plenty of standing room opposite the bar. The room felt very empty, even with all tables occupied, and the place felt very cold and unappealing as a result. Much preferable was the right hand room, where a large seating area can be found, with lots of regular and high stool seating filling the room, which is segregated into a few vaguely demarcated areas. There are some nice old pictures of the docks on the walls here and some tables had decent views out to the docks outside. There are two more floors, each offering different menus and dining/drinking experiences, including a grill on one floor and a pizzeria on another, neither of which we bothered to visit. The bar has its own typical pub grub menu, but prices were very steep and we must be the only people in history to go to Shoreditch in order to find a cheaper food option! There are plenty of handpulls on the bar, some doubled up, but still offering a fairly wide range between them, with Fullers London Pride, Sharps Doom Bar, Greene King IPA, St Austell Tribute and Hardy & Hanson Rocking Rudolph all available on our pre-Christmas visit. The Tribute was pretty decent and the barman serving us was friendly enough, if perhaps not the most competent I’ve ever encountered. This seems to be the only traditional pub in St Katherine’s Dock and is therefore somewhere worth knowing about if you happen to be visiting the area. I can’t say the place really grabbed me, but it does have the advantage of a reasonable ale range and at least one pleasant room in which to enjoy your drinks. I won’t be rushing back here, but it does the job and could’ve been a lot worse.

As described below, large reconstructed warehouse in middle of historic docks which is now a twee marina. Pleasant enough on a quiet afternoon if you happen to be there, but there are much better pubs around.

A former warehouse indeed, moved 70-odd yards to its current position and opened in 1976. Essentially, it's two floors of dining (grill and pizzeria) with the first floor acting as a pub with food served until 6.00 pm. St. Katharine Docks - note correct spelling ;-) - was in part constructed by Thomas Telford, subjected to substantial bombing in World War II and then remodelled, not always sympathetically, in the 1980s. I've only been here a couple of times before, the last time being the best part of 20 years ago. Unsurprisingly it hasn't changed except that the sports TVs are now wider and slimmer. Inside it's...well...all wood. Even the glasses are turned on a lathe from wood. Ok, I made that bit up but you get the picture. Up a short flight of wooden steps, past the open gallery and bouncer and into the substantial exposed brick interior, essentially open plan; the long bar is at the rear, in front of which are high and low tables, chairs and drinking shelves made of... The clients in here seem to be mainly tourists or young men in tight T-shirts, held together by hair gel and scantily-clad women; it's a bit loud inside, even for a Thursday evening made more so as the bouncers were herding in the terrace's drinkers due to noise restraints. Service was pleasantly swift but the barman was clueless, failing at first to comprehend the concept of a *half pint*. Ales: Fuller's London Pride, Greene King's IPA and St. Austell's Tribute at a thumping £2.80 a half and fine - nothing more. It's almost worth coming here out of curiosity on the way to do a crawl of E1's pubs, not least because it's en route for The Town of Ramsgate, Turner's Old Star, et al. Otherwise the underwhelming experience, poor ale choice and obscene prices will probably rule it out of the discerning pub-goer's itinerary.

Interesting-looking building, formerly a warehouse dating from the 18th century, which was moved a short distance and reconstructed in the 1970s. Very busy on a hot Wednesday evening, with all the outside seating areas full. The historic interior of the 'tavern' (all old wood) was much quieter, though, to the extent that it felt rather cavernous. Restaurants on the first and second floors, both with extensive balconies right along the main façade. Let down by a rather pedestrian beer offering, with just Pride, Tribute and the 'house' Dickens Ale available on handpump. Post-visit note: I was slightly surprised to find out that this place is run by Select Service Partner, the people who run the franchised food and drink outlets at many mainline railway stations and certain airports.