The Two Towers, West Norwood, SE27

Previous review made just pre pandemic by a one hit wonder made me smile on sitting down with my pint of Guinness shortly after arrival in the leather sofa area at the back of the pub. There is a garden / outside seating area at the back of the pub but not one for today. Few plausible drinking options, certainly no cask. Had very loud music on totally drowning out other activity in the pub, could just about hear the sound of the clanking pool balls above it occasionally but at least it wasn’t bloody Chas & Dave (Hendrix on walking in was a decent greeting)!

The Two Towers is indeed a "locals pub". It serves a very good pint of Guinness and has Stowford Press on draught, horse racing on the TV, Tayto crisps and a fine selection of music on the jukebox. No real ales, just real people. In the summer you can sit out front or in the walled garden at the rear. On cold days Dickie lights the fire using discarded betting slips for kindle. Good place to hook up with a builder, a chippie or other tradesman. Probably not the place to meet your Tinder date.

There's no real ale here, and a half of Guinness cost £2. There was no sign of food on Saturday afternoon. The Two Towers here must refer to the old long lost Crystal Palace, rather the old long lost Wembley stadium. It must be over 30 years since my last visit to this pub, and it's not how I remember it, but that's not surprising I guess. At least it's still here. It's now bare-boarded, has sofas and armchairs spread liberally around the place, combined with small round stools and metal framed tables. There was even a leopard print upholstered chaise longue, but perhaps wisely nobody was reclining on it. I'm not sure what it was doing there, unless the intention was to enhance the boudoir ambience. The space would be better used on another table and chairs in my opinion. There's a room at the back on the right containing a pool table, and another small room at the back on the left with just one or two tables and chairs. There's now a central island servery, but it's clear where the main bar at the front was originally two separate rooms. The main room has some impressive fluted wood paneling to three quarter height, but now painted a light grey of course. The bar counter has similar fluted panelling on its frontage, but the bar back is a very simple and ordinary affair. There's a small walled garden at the back, and when I was in the pub there was a real log fire ablaze and crackling away, which was very welcome on a cold February day. Also worth noting is the large pull down screen for major sporting events - some rugby was being broadcast during my visit. I also saw karaoke advertised on Fridays, and a juke box was located on the right. Despite the faux elegant stuff like the chaise longue and enormous vase/pot containing artificial flowers, this remains a local drinkers' pub. But the absence of a real means that I doubt whether I'll visit again.

The Two Towers is a small looking pub that now has lots of redevelopment going on around it,but thankfully it has survived this. Once inside there is a single room with the bar facing,there are areas either side of the bar which run to the rear,there are two tall tables and chairs to the front right plus normal tables and chairs and a pool table to the rear right,the left side has settees,the room is bare boarded throughout. There were no real ales on the bar so it was a drink of John Smiths Extra Cold Crap which was really crap. There were a couple of other customers in on my Saturday afternoon visit. This is a pretty basic locals pub that most people would not bother going in. Pub visited 16/4/2016

This pub was shut when I walked past on Wednesday lunchtime, but it was clearly still trading. There were no opening times posted. Peering through the window I could see a very basic one-room pub, with a pool table at the back. Unfortunately I couldn’t see a handpump on the bar, although I suppose there might have been hiding somewhere behind the lager fonts.