The Douglas Fir, SE20

I am glad PSM has reviewed this pub as I cant remember much about the interior.Small one room bar.Nicely done up.Busy.Two cask beers on Bristol beer factory -independence and Gypsyhill -plum mild.

Handily positioned roughly halfway between Crystal Palace and Anerley stations, this micro pub opened in November 2016 as the first outlet for the local Gipsy Hill Brewery. The bar is located in a short row of shops and was apparently previously a hair salon. This means we have the usual shop converted, single room layout with large floor to ceiling windows to the front and a jerry built servery made from old pallets at the back of the room. There are exposed floorboards throughout and the walls have been painted an unconventional shade of purple, which looks much better than it sounds. A sofa stands beneath the window, serving a table with a couple of standard chairs opposite and one more standard table to the side, whilst a long table with benches fills the space opposite the bar. Seating is rounded out by a few high stools along a drinking ledge stacked with the day's papers to the right and there is minimal standing room, so it's good to bag a space before the crowds appear. The wall to the right has a few nice art prints of Gipsy Hill's pump clip designs whilst a few other bits of brewery artwork adorn the left hand wall. A board behind the bar lists the various cask and keg options and a nearby pillar has been fitted with a board which details the other drink options available. The bar has some low wattage light bulbs suspended over it and the bar back is broken by some large windows, so it's not particularly gloomy inside during daylight hours. There was a good crowd building up on my early Saturday evening visit, with customers giving the cask and keg options some equally good turnover. There are usually just the two cask ales available and on this visit these were Gipsy Hill Hepcat (£3.90) and Thornbridge Lord Marples. Four more Gipsy Hill beers were being served from the keg alongside guests from Arbor, Tiny Rebel and Mad Hatter, with prices for these ranging from £4.60 - £5.50. Two young barmen were on duty and were quite chatty about the beers before serving up a good pint of the Hepcat which I enjoyed whilst pouring through the newspapers they'd left out for customers. I quite like Gipsy Hill beers but have had a fair few that have been poorly kept, so I would like to think this venue will provide some much needed quality control. My pint was certainly in fine shape on this occasion and i found the pub generates a good atmosphere even with a modest sized crowd. This is a solid addition to the local pub scene and I'm sure I'll be back again very soon.

Official site of The Douglas Fir - gipsyhillbrew.com

Official site of The Douglas Fir - gipsyhillbrew.com