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Detail Pages
The Railway Tavern, Tulse Hill, SE27
SE27
SE27 9BW
Pub Type
Punch TavernsReviews (Current Rating Average: 6½ of 10) see review guidelines
Graham Coombs left this review about The Railway Tavern
A surprisingly large pub given the small frontage, but it extends back a long way and even has a garden along the side. It is still painted in very dark colours, brightened up with odd bits of lighting. No cask ale - three T-bars carry fairly mainstream stuff, with a few craft included from Brixton etc. Very much geared up for eating, with most tables reserved for later on. The menu appeared to be Indian.
On 14th July 2023
- rating: 5
[User has posted 3339 recommendations about 3276 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Railway Tavern
This large pub, situated outside Tulse Hill station, has a large opened out interior that only hints at its former, multiple room layout. The room has dark wood floorboards and matching panelling in places, which, when combined with the dark colour scheme the rest of the room has been painted in, not to mention the low level lighting employed within, makes this a very gloomy and dark pub, even on one of the hottest days on record, as it was when I visited. You enter to a sizeable space full of tables and chairs, with high tables and stools to the front and some pews through the centre. The servery is sited on the rear wall with a dark wood panelled counter and bar back, plus a coffee station just around the corner. A gutted fireplace to the left has a TV screen above it which was showing live cricket and there was a lot of promotional material covering the walls whilst the windowsills were full of depressing looking, wilted flowers. The pub runs further back down the right-hand side, where some nice banquette seating is available. From here, you have access to a split-level covered garden area which was being well utilised on my visit. The top section has table football and pool, with long benches to sit along, whilst the lower section has metal flooring, lots of tables and chairs, a pinball machine and its own card-only bar. This in turn takes you out to the patio garden which has loads more seating, some of which doubles back on itself to run along one side of the pub.
There were just two handpulls in action when I arrived, dispensing Hardy & Hanson Bitter and canopy Sun Ray. The latter was charged at £4.50 a pint and was suffering very much from the extreme temperatures – difficult to know whether beer quality would be of a higher standard on a day with weather more representative of the British Isles.
This isn’t too bad for a station-side pub, with the nice, well-appointed beer garden being the main draw. I quite liked the internal décor, but it was too gloomy and a marginally higher wattage bulb or two would make all the difference. The jury remains out regarding the beer quality, but this isn’t a bad place to stop off whilst waiting for a train.
On 25th November 2019
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Alan Winfield left this review about The Railway Tavern
The Railway Tavern is situated just outside the exit from Tulse Hill station.
This is a decent enough looking pub,once inside there is a roughly square shaped room with the bar facing,the room is bare boarded,the seating bench type and normal tables and chairs,plus a couple of settee's to the front,there is a DJ rig to the rear right.
There were five real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Black Sheep Golden Sheep which went down well after the journey down here from Nottingham,the other beers were Purity UBU,Sharps Atlantic,Hobgoblin and Doom Bar.
The pricing was very expensive with my half of Golden Sheep costing £2.50 the most expensive drink of the day on my crawl round this area of South London.
I quite liked the pub but the background music was crap,an added bonus is that it was open just after 11am.
Pub visited 16/4/2016
On 15th May 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 6113 recommendations about 6113 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
train man left this review about The Railway Tavern
£4.50 for a pint of watery Sharps Atlantic (4.2%)? Since when did Tulse Hill warrant higher than West End prices? No. Just WRONG!
On 12th April 2016
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 412 recommendations about 411 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about Railway Tavern
The pub is immediately in front of you as you exit Tulse Hill station, an inviting looking place that does not look like your typical station pub. Various painted slogans offer the options within including references to cakes and pastries. Inside there is an L-shaped main bar area with the bar on the back wall before the room returns beyond. It was tricky to get to as the tables one one side in particular were crammed together but this may have been due to the live football being shown on the big screen on the side wall. Seating is very mixed and quite unusual, looking like a job lot from a clearance sale, my initial low level office style chair revolved freely, I had to swap it, no wonder it was free when the pub was packed. The red and white painted maypole column remains, but sans dangly bits, as does the "LOVE" sign, where on the opposite wall are some, ahem, "artistic drawings" of ladies. Other decor consists of music/band night posters. There is a small railed off area with a computer which showed the pub's Facebook page and was lined with old 45rpm singles.
To the rear doors lead onto a covered external decked area with a food servery to one side. Fancy looking and hard to eat by hand burgers looked to be popular. An outdoor open to air garden is beyond, apparently a "secret" one so the spoiler has written on the elevation of te pub as you exit the station. Some strange little huts, a bit like beach huts here and a table tennis table.
I liked the pub and its quirkiness but despite having six cask ales on, not only was the selection mundane but also expensive. There was Tribute, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Doom Bar, Black Sheep Bitter, Adnam's Broadside and Purity Mad Goose (£4.50).
There are three pubs in the immediate vicinity of the station, I tried them all, this, despite the pricing was easily the best.
On 13th February 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1708 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about Railway Tavern
It's difficult to know where to start with this pub. When you come out of Tulse Hill station, on the right you see what appears to be a small single room station pub. Bit it's more than that. The main bar area as you enter is what you might expect - bar counter facing you, with quite traditional furnishings such as banquettes and normal tables and chairs. Although the furnishings are traditional, they are somewhat mismatched in an Antic-esque kind of way. However there are one or two unusual features, such as the maypole column in the centre of the room with mult-coloured bunting streaming from it; and the DJ/karaoke/music centre on the right with an illuminated sign spelling LOVE next to it. There are aspidistras and other potted plants around the place, and on the counter I saw another one of those water containers with ribbons of cucmber or something like it flaoting in the water. Round to the right of the servery there's a large tables which was set for diners, although I didn't see a menu anywhere.
Continuing further back, through a door there's another drinking area with an open to view kitchen on the right, plenty of seating and a large TV on the wall on the left. Continuing down a few stairs brings one to another area with more seating, plus a table football table and a pinball machine (Bugs Bunny). This pub seems to go forever - continuing on to the outside is a very large garden, complete with loads of picnic tables, an outside bar (but not in use on Thursday afternoon), and even some covered cabanas. Theree's another illuminated light here as well (but switched of as there was still daylight, this one spelling HEAVEN.
Let's not forget the beers. They had on Doom Bar, St Austell Tribute, Adnam's Ghost Ship, and Sambrook's Wandle. That's a reasonable selection, if nothing terribly exciting. They obviously do food, hence the kitchen I saw at the back, but I've no idea what sort of food they serve. Live entertainment is obviously big business here as well. But what an absolute TARDIS of a pub. I'm glad I dropped in here to experience a complete surprise of a pub.
On 4th October 2015
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]