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Detail Pages
Royal Inn On The Park, E9
E9
E9 7HJ
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about Royal Inn On The Park
Built in 1862 for Truman’s as the Royal Hotel and given its current name around 1998, the location hasn’t changed in the few hours since the last review was submitted, on the edge of Victoria Park and Homerton village with its clutch of organic shops.
This is really quite a grand stuccoed affair. The interior is lofty and spacious with three rooms, the ‘dining wing’ is probably a new addition and looks like something attached to a country club, with its bifold doors opening onto a large patio, which wraps around the south and east sides.
The main room has large picture windows with brass rails but no curtains, though given that this is a Remarkable Pubs Co. (RPC) acquisition, I’d imagine that ordinarily there’d be tieback swag velvet curtains; perhaps it was laundry day. The floor is boarded and the walls and ceiling are white Anaglypta; a bit plain. The bar is painted black and field panelled with a marble top. However, the bar back is the showstopper here (see photo). It features five mottled pink and red marble columns with white marble capitals in the Corinthian style. At right is a Grecian-style pediment with dentils and another RPC trademark, a clock (there’s also one of their world maps). To the right is a frame to the next room, looking like a proscenium arch. Furniture here comprises settles arranged into semi-booths with little bottle vases containing a plant on tables; other chairs are normal.
The next room is more of a lounge with a Chesterfield and marble fireplace with polychromatic tiles, above which is a large gilded mirror; CAMRA says the fire is used, a common feature of RPC venues. Both rooms feature spherical translucent white hanging lamps. There’s little décor, though the dining room has posters from the London Olympics past and to emphasise this, there’s a larger than life [fake?] marble statue of an Olympian throwing a discus, perhaps a homage to the main bar’s classical Greek entablature.
Customers are the typical free-range organic types to be expected here.
There’s a blackboard by the bar listing ales, brewer, ABV and price with Litovel listed, of course. Like other RPC pubs, this place has an unnatural obsession with Fuller’s dreary beers; Pride and Seafarer on pump with two unclipped pumps. The blackboard indicated Five Points XPA with two ABVs, so presumably is served on cask and not just on keg at £5.80 and fine once warmed up.
I would have given this place a higher mark as this is a very fine pub, but RPC really needs to get more imaginative with its beers. There are loads of quality real ale breweries in Hackney, so why not use them?
On 25th August 2021
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1985 recommendations about 1951 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about Royal Inn On The Park
Right next to a gate into Victoria Park,this large pub has a very fine and traditional external appearance,with pic nic bench seating on two sides of a patio but without views of the park itself.The interior is wooden floored with high Victorian ceilings and picture windows.The tap room has an impressive bar back supported by marble columns and with inlaid mirrors.This room has an upright piano,juke box and a flatscreen (off) with traditional furniture and some bench seating.Through an arch is a back lounge with it's own bar access but this was reserved for a wedding reception so unvisited by myself.Further around is a side snug,laid as a dining area.Above the bar back there is a ceramic sign saying Importer and Bonder,and it is quite possible this pub may have served such a purpose.
There were 5 handpumps but only double clipped with London Pride (Decent,NBSS3,£4.60).Food is generally available but the friendly staff apologised for problems and hence non availability on my Friday lunchtime visit.
There was a very decent soundtrack playing,it's calm and traditional and if more ale options had been available it would have scored much higher.
On 22nd August 2021
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
custodian 42 left this review about Royal Inn On The Park
Well lighted pub with entrances at both ends. Bar in middle and rooms off to the left and right. Five real ales, the strongest being Chiswick HSB @ 4.8% ABV.
On 17th September 2018
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1693 recommendations about 1691 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about Royal Inn On The Park
This is a large pub right on the edge of Victoria Park – so the pub's name is wholly accurate. Inside it's bare-boarded, high-ceilinged with heavy scrubbed wood furniture. The music was unbearably loud, though one of the bar staff turned it down while I was at the bar getting a drink. Outside there is a large patio looking out over the park, which must be an absolute winner on a warm summer weekend. It was pretty empty on the Wednesday afternoon I was in there but I bet it must be heaving on a warm evening.
The had Fuller's ales, plus Gales HSB and Adnam's bitter. As you would expect in a pub like this, it's not cheap. The menu consisted of “designer food”. I went for the smoked chicken and avocado sandwich, which came with a few chips. There were enough chips, not a great deal of chicken, but the crusty bread was delicious. Not cheap at £7.50. I don't think that this is the sort of pub you go to for a family meal (the menu wouldn't suit children) or a quiet pint, but for meeting chums and especially when the weather is nice and you can sit outside.
On 8th July 2009
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]