Mirth, Marvel & Maud, Walthamstow, E17

This is a terrific cinema conversion, brought back into the public domain by Antic after a period of closure and uncertainty as to the premises’ future. You enter into a small front lobby area with folding doors out to the busy main road, where a few tables and chairs have been set up for those seemingly unwilling to venture too far inside this huge venue. From here, you pass through into the main room with a quarry stone floor, high decorative ceiling and pillar lined walls with large arched mirrors between each pillar. The old ticketing booth remains in situ and has been converted into a spirits and cocktails bar, which I thought was quite a novel idea. Standard tables and chairs run down the left hand side, with sofas over to the right, but it remains a largely empty space, ideal for sizable groups of vertical drinkers. Two pinball machines and a table football game do little to fill out the space. To the rear, there are two staircases to the left and right leading up to another seating area and a central staircase between which leads you down to the bar. The bar area has a long counter down the rear wall and a nice dark wood bar back, but isn’t really an area you’d want to linger in and has virtually no seating in it as a result. Heading upstairs, you first reach a small landing area with a mix of high tables and stools and a few tables and chairs, all looking down over the balcony to the bulk of the main room. Continuing upstairs, you eventually reach a very impressive upper seating area with a stunning vaulted ceiling, walls painted in dark shades with the usual Antic bric-a-brac on display, loads of tables and chairs and more arched mirrors along the walls. The room here runs a long way to the left and is therefore deceptively large, being wider than the lower part of the pub. There is a stage to the right up here, used for live music, and a decent soundtrack was playing during my brief stay. The pub has a good ale range even by Antic’s standards, with Crate Golden, ELB Foundation Bitter, Volden Session Ale, One Mile End Great Atom Mild and Clouded Minds Clout Stout available alongside the remaining unused pump. The Great Atom Mild was as great as the name suggests and the barmaid was very pleasant when serving me. I really liked this one and felt I probably needed to come back at a busier time to fully appreciate the place, as a trickle of customers during my visit hardly imbued the place with any kind of atmosphere. Antic have created what must be their most impressive looking pub here and done the general public a great service by keeping this fine old building open, making this a must-do when visiting Walthamstow.

I'm glad to say that despite suggestions by previous reviewers of the potential temporary nature of this pub, it's still very much a going concern. Antic pubs sometimes have a tendency to come and go like a puff of smoke, but this one's survived so far. The bar counter is at the back on the ground floor, past the entrance kiosk, but the majority of seating seems to be upstairs on the large balcony which may well have originally been the cinema's bar. On the ground floor there is a table football machine, as well as a couple of pinball machines - one a vintage Williams tenpin bowling themed game. I didn't note all the ales on, but suffice to say that there was a good range. We went for the Volden, the house beer, which is a good session ale. This pub still retains much of the opulence from its days as a cinema, and opulence is not a word usually associated with Antic pubs. This is a really comfortable and interesting pub. I recommend a visit for anyone looking for good beer in Walthamstow.

Official site of Mirth, Marvel and Maud - mirthmarvelandmaud.com

Official site of Mirth, Marvel and Maud - mirthmarvelandmaud.com