The Lord Napier & Star, Hackney Wick, E9

I recall having seen this building before in its derelict state, but still standing out due to the colourful graffiti adorning it. Whilst this area still has a bit of a gritty feel to it, it also appears to be up and coming. The pub re-opened after a hiatus of 26 years, with the graffiti sill present. On a matchday, there was a bouncer on the door and the place was packed. It was difficult to get to the bar on the ground floor. Although I believe there was a further bar upstairs, with a roof terrace for better weather. With it being so packed, it was difficult to see what beers were available. The solitary cask ale was Cloudwater It's Coming Home. However, I didn't choose that and ended up with a couple of craft beers, namely Verdant Putty & Drop Project Crush. Bar staff, or at least the guy that served us, were fairly clueless. He kept telling us that each beer we were ordering wasn't on. Given we couldn't get to see the full selection due to the crowds, it was very difficult to select a beer that he agreed was on. The whole process was taking a lot longer than it needed to and wasn't exactly helping reduce the queues of people waiting to get served. For the second round, crowds had thinned a little and I had spotted the beer I wanted. Again, he said it wasn't on, but luckily another barman, possibly the manager/landlord corrected him and pointed him in the right direction. It's good to see an old pub re-open after many years. However, there are still a few teething issues to resolve here.

This place has been a landmark derelict for as long as I've been coming to Hackney Wick, so I was surprised to see that someone has taken it on and given it an extensive makeover into a smart, multi-faceted venue. Externally, the fine old Truman’s tiling has been scrubbed up, but appears alongside some of the old graffiti which characterised the pub during its fallow period. Inside, there’s a spacious main bar with smart parquet flooring, plenty of smart seating around the perimeter and in an open area opposite the bar. The servery is a rather boxy affair, with additional seating available down either side of it, some of which has been formed into dark, secluded booths with comfy banquettes. Large german-style beer fonts block the front part of the bar from view for the bar staff, but the bar runs a little way back to either side, so service tends to focus in these spaces. The whole place is painted in modern, almost gastro-style shades with food menus on each table offering hipster-friendly takes on the usual pub-grub fayre. A small beer garden can be found to the rear, with decent garden furniture and partial cover, but for a better outdoor experience, head upstairs, past the first-floor bar (packed and very noisy on a Saturday afternoon), to the roof terrace, from where you can enjoy views of the Orbit and surrounding area from beneath hardy looking canvas shelters with comfy banquette seating. Just the one cask ale on handpull - Howling Hops Tropical Deluxe - although Olivers Fine Cider occupied another of the pumps. There’s also an extensive craft keg range, source mainly from London-based micros. A very friendly barmaid served me a pint of the Tropical Deluxe, which was a nice hoppy number that went down nicely out on the roof on a hot summer’s afternoon. This is an excellent project which has brought a seemingly condemned pub back into the public realm, mixing a few traditional features with contemporary styling and plenty of craft beer. It’s probably aimed more at the local hipster community, but I can imagine sports and music fans putting the place to good use ahead of events in the Olympic Park and I’d prefer drinking in here than in all of the brewery bars in the vicinity.

I remember back in the day, whenever there was a news item about the dereliction of Hackney Wick they would always show a picture of this pub boarded up and covered in graffiti. So it was great to find it reopen and functioning as a pub once again. Hackney Wick Is an area of some impressive street art and it is good and fitting that they have retained the colourful vibrant street art which adorns the top section of the pub. Unfortunately some less sightly graffiti tags have appeared on the lovely Victorian green tiling of the ground floor, but hopefully these will be cleaned off at some point. The ground floor single room interior well described by previous reviewers is now in the style of a modern craft beer bar and I can imagine the front section is well utilised for vertical drinking, especially on the weekend late night DJ sessions. But there is some nice secluded seating to the back of the bar and then a small external court yard garden area off here. However the better outside space awaits up two flight of stairs in the corner, initially via an additional room on the first floor with its own bar, to a rather nice roof top terrace. This is mainly exposed and populated with solid plastic tables and chairs, but there is a section under a large umbrella with comfortable padded garden furniture type settee’s. On a clear blue sky afternoon this was a fantastic spot to enjoy an ale. And on that point the hand pumps were not in use for my visit so crafty keg it was then and there were some interesting craft options and a good range of different styles from the main ten tap gantry in the centre of the bar. Over the course of our visit I tried halves of Verdant Brewing People Money Space Time ( decent glass of chicken soup as I heard another Pub Galore member refer to these murky brews ), Five Pints JUPA ( decent Pale but nothing special), and Noeonraptor Brewing Tripple Fruited Raptor ( if you are into alcoholic fruit juice this one will blow your socks off), all of which I took up to the roof top and tried to blend in with the predominantly young crowd, who were arriving for the evening session, by taking an absolute age to sup them. I have to say I think they have done a truly excellent job bringing this pub back from the dead and with the addition of other craft beer outlets in the area since I last visited I would say the revitalised Lord Napier fits in well and will certainly appeal to the target demographic who visit this area for r&r.

Smartened up outside and, quite obviously, internally as well, this newly reborn pub scrubs up well. Not a handpump in sight, so far as I could see, but there seems to have been some imagination put into the keg choices - I went for a hazy New Zealand Pale which was pleasant enough and cost me what seems to be the new London normal of £6.20 the pint. There's an upstairs bar and roof garden which might be worth investigating. It's OK, I suppose, and worth a look-in, but you're hardly stuck for choice in this neighbourhood.