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Chat about:
Disappointment of the week with Mobyduck
on the Pub Forum
Detail Pages
The Sun, Clapham, SW4
SW4
SW4 0JL
Pub Type
Castle (Mitchells & Butlers)Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6 of 10) see review guidelines
Tris C left this review about The Sun
This place dates to at least the start of the 19th century, probably rebuilt a few decades later with a distinctive French Empire-style roof, once a Bass pub and part of a triangular pub trio.
The interior has been substantially modernised, viewable on their website, with a bare brick and copper steampunk bar back, boarded floor, greyish and bluish colour scheme with wainscoting and matchboard, dominated by a large, modern take on a Wellington chandelier. Décor takes the form of eclectic mixed prints and furniture is mixed, some modern. Customers were young professional types and there was a decent ambience.
Ales proffered were Pride then Landlord at a pricey £3.25 a half, in reasonable shape, served by a friendly barmaid.
This is a barely passable pub, better than the Rose & Crown, but no match for the Prince of Wales; once again, a better, wider and more imaginative choice of cask would get the score up.
On 16th March 2024
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1984 recommendations about 1950 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Graham Coombs left this review about The Sun
A good pup opposite Clapham Old Town bus terminating point. There is one large square room, decorated with pictures and mirrors, with a small snug area at the back and a dining room upstairs. At the side is a nice patio with various seating arrangements, shaded by a couple of large trees. Ales included 5 Points Pale, Proper Job and a Sharp's limited edition.
On 5th August 2019
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3339 recommendations about 3276 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
custodian 42 left this review about The Sun
One room with bar to the rear and outside seating to right side. Four hand pumps, one reversed. Strongest was UBU Purity @ 4.5% ABV.
On 2nd September 2017
- rating: 4
[User has posted 1693 recommendations about 1691 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Sun
Very much more a gastro pub than its two near neighbors,The Rose And Crown and The Prince Of Wales, the single downstairs square room is open plan and fully decked out with tables and chairs, very busy on a Sunday afternoon with both drinkers and diners.Four beers were on Darkstar Hophead, Vocation Bread and Butter, London Beer Company Chelsea Blond,for some reason I missed noting the fourth beer and can no longer remember it,however the Blonde was good and the Roast Beef was excellent. A nice place.
On 25th September 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1871 recommendations about 1844 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about The Sun
A bar on the rear wall of the Sun faces open plan seating that was all taken in this busy pub on a recent Saturday afternoon. I didn’t spot any televisions and there wasn’t any background music trying to compete with the chit chat of the crowd. To the left of the bar is a flight of stairs that leads up to a drinking and dining area that I did not visit. Around the back of the bar are a couple of high tables with seating and access to the toilets and side paved beer garden. This garden was also very busy with all seating taken up by twenty and thirty somethings.
The bar is stocked with premium keg products and the four hand pumps were drawing Sharp’s Doom Bar, Moorhouse’s Black Cat Reserve, Greene King’s Old Speckled Hen and Navigation Brewery’s Britannia. Food is available and I wasn’t surprised to see that all of the mains are priced over a tenner. I quite liked it in here, although the miserable barmaid that served me needs an attitude adjustment.
On 10th May 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5233 recommendations about 5201 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john gray left this review about The Sun
large sparsly decorated pub with lots of exposed brick and black painted ceiling.Very busy with a young crowd.Good outside space for drinkers.Three real ales Ubu,Junction and Doombar
On 12th April 2014
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1023 recommendations about 1009 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about The Sun
A square room with four symmetrical columns propping up the black wooden clad ceiling, well worn boarded floor, the bar is now on the back wall with exposed yellow stock brickwork behind. The other walls are all wood clad, half height black panelling with yellow painted close boarding above. A servery area to the rear side is tiled in white. Some upper windows are still leaded with the trademark green and amber Charrington's banding, the lower ones are clear glass replacements. Mixed seating, mostly traditional sized tables and chairs even if the chairs are mismatched in the current trendy style, there are a couple of high tables, one as usual in the window plus a curved sofa cum bench thing. All tables had a single flower in a washed out Heinz ketchup bottle. There are a few tatty but decent board games on a shelf, Scrabble, Monopoly etc, there is a TV on the wall behind the bar showing at the time the dreaded Wimbledon tennis bore show, decent enough music played at an ok volume.
Food is served, clipboard menus on the tables offered some fancy sandwiches from £6.50 and up to a tenner for steak, a fixed price menu £10/13 while specials were listed on a chalkboard, about the only wall mounted décor in the place. Saturday brunches and Sunday roasts also advertised. Not forgetting the canine visitors, there is a jar of doggie treats on the bar, the Common is nearby.
I called in here after finding my intended destination over the road, The Rose and Crown solidly shut with upended seating at 3pm on a weekday afternoon, I wasn't sure what to expect from a lilac painted pub with a full size replica cow above the pub name but it was actually ok if a bit upmarket and shabby chic.
Four handpumps, Sambrook's Junction, Purity Ubu (£4.09), Doom Bar reversed plus guest Adnams Fat Sprat. Keg offerings from amongst others, Meantime, Veltins, Sierra Nevada, Blue Moon, Kozel and Estrella.
There is a leafy partially covered outdoor area to the side and another unvisited by me room upstairs called The Helios Room.
On 26th June 2013
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1707 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Sun
When you see a pub painted lilac, with an awning advertising Estrella lager, you do not expect to have found a traditional pub, and of course you would be right here, as this is a gastropub. This pub has been knocked into one room now of course, but the unused doors to the street show how it would have been subdivided in Victorian times. The servery is now a central horseshoe shape, with the eating/drinking area wrapped around it. The furnishings are the usual mix of tall tables with tall stools and benches, some banquette seating, but with a few normal tables and chairs which of course I made use of. This is the sort of place where they have thin vases on the tables containing a single flower, and with a couple of large vases of flowers on the bar counter, as well as a potted fig tree against the wall. There’s nothing left of any original features, although some of the window glass is green banded, suggesting a previous incarnation as a Charrington’s pub. There’s a small courtyard garden to the side of the pub, as well as an upstairs bar.
There were four handpumps on the counter – three had clips reversed (but with ales about to be put on I was told) and the fourth was dishing out Acorn Brewery Sorachi Ale IPA (£3.80 a pint!), served in a handled jug rather than a straight glass. There were daily printed menus on the tables. Main courses were upwards of £8.50 – the adjective rich “homemade west country beefburger, mature cheddar and smoked bacon with chips” was £9.25. Sandwiches, that come with a small bowl of chips, are between £5.25 to £7. In the gastropub way my sandwich was served up on a block of wood for some reason, rather than a plate, but I’m not too fussy about that sort of thing.
This is a London gastropub with prices to match. But both my pint and sandwich were of excellent quality. I doubt that this is the sort of place to which I would return. If there was a choice of four ales then that would be an enticing feature, but a pint pushing the £4 barrier is a bit over the top as far as I am concerned.
On 13th October 2011
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Alan Winfield left this review about The Sun
I did'nt like the look of the Sun from the outside but once inside i was surprised to see four handpumps on the bar i had Sharps Doom Bar this was a decent drink the other beers were Taylor Landlord,Marstons Pedigree and London Pride this pub was nothing special but at least there was a choice of beers to drink.
On 20th June 2010
- rating: 7
[User has posted 6113 recommendations about 6113 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Philip Carter left this review about The Sun
Nice pub, bare wooden floors. It gets busy on Sunday afternoon, especially if it is sunny as the garden gets packed. Serves Thai food everyday. Very handy for the buses as the starting point for many of the buses is right outside. Update, there have been a few changes, now sells real ale, Deuchars (hope I spelt that right) and Pride. Also sells Westons cider and perry on tap.Update, Stopped serving Thai food does western food.(I don't mean cowboy western food).
On 2nd January 2009
- rating: 8
[User has posted 757 recommendations about 720 pubs]