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The Bridge Tap, SE1

32-34 Borough High Street
SE1
SE1 1XU
Phone: 02073789999

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Reviews (Current Rating Average: of 10) Add Review see review guidelines


Pub SignMan left this review about The Bridge Tap

This large, modern pub close to London Bridge station and Borough Market, occupies a former branch of the Slug & Lettuce chain and has a good-sized, single room interior with attractive polished parquet flooring, large windows around three sides with massive blinds partly drawn to balance out the lighting, and plain painted walls. Seating is nicely varied throughout, with high tables and stools dominating the back wall, benches through the centre and tables and chairs elsewhere, plus some banquette booths next to the bar. The servery is to the right and has an unusual multi-coloured counter with a smart top and a part bare brick, part timbered bar back. A mural detailing the brewing process has been stencilled across the top, although I’m not aware of this place being affiliated with any particular brewer, and some small beer tanks can also be found back here, as well as a neon sign declaring that “Craft Is King”. TV screens dominate the room, most of them showing live cricket on my visit, with some barely audible music playing somewhere in the background. Decor is otherwise quite limited, with a couple of display cabinets housing beer bottles and other such breweriana being about as exciting as it gets.
Four handpulls were dispensing three cask ales – Fullers London Pride, Sharps Solar Wave and Southwark Bankside Blonde – with the final pump unclipped. I was served by a comically rude barman who gave an enormous amount of good-natured grief to a poor punter who accidentally walked off with his pint before paying. Thankfully he was more forgiving to me and served up a reasonably good drop of the Bankside Blonde, which I enjoyed drinking whilst watching the cricket.
I thought this was a pretty good example of a modern, city centre bar that seems to have wide appeal if the good midweek crowd was anything to go by. It’s not really a challenger to some of the areas top alehouses and craft beer bars, but it definitely makes a nice alternative and I can only presume it’s a significant upgrade on the Slug & Lettuce that went before it.

Date of visit – 1st August 2023

On 28th December 2023 - rating: 7
[User has posted 3102 recommendations about 3102 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Bridge Tap

First revisit since 2013 (when it was a Slug & Lettuce), this tapered bar has large windows and chandeliers so quite light inside at any time of day. Mostly standard tables, with some tall furniture at the back near the bar. Doom Bar, Hobgoblin Gold and Bankside Blonde from Southwark Brewing (£4.70) available from three of the four handpumps. In addition to the T-bar founts, seven craft beers were available from a total of ten keg taps on the bar-back, and above these can be found a selection of eight boxed ciders. Overall, a definite improvement.

On 13th October 2021 - rating: 7
[User has posted 8066 recommendations about 8066 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


john gray left this review about The Bridge Tap

Warm,busy and cavernous with Christmas music bouncing off the hard surfaces making it anything but comfy.Large tv,s dominate.Three cask beers Duechers,Doom and Pride so common I don't need to mention the brewers.10 keg beers and Beavertown-neck oil didn't disappoint.Leave it to the young ones.

On 31st December 2019 - rating: 7
[User has posted 1023 recommendations about 1009 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Rex Rattus left this review about The Bridge Tap

This place has definitely shifted up a notch or two since its Slug & Lettuce days (not that I visited then, but I'm sure I'm not wrong!). There were four real ales on - Doom Bar, Gales Seafarers, Wantsum Bridge Tap, and Bermondsey Best (£4.40). Not cheap, but par for the area I guess. There were menus on all the tables, with offerings mainly of the "fast food" variety such as burgers and pizze - a clasic burger with chips is £9.

There are some booths on the left, some tall tables/tall stools near the bar counter, and some normal tables and chairs crammed in nearer to the front. There was no carpet on the floor to soak up any superflous noise - of which there was a lot - but the floor was an attractive herringbone parquet. Customers looked to be of a transient nature, with several seemingly unaware of how food and drinks are obtained in UK pubs, and with most looking as if they were grabbing a quick bite and a drink before heading off for somewhere. It was busy, noisy and frenetic on the Saturday afternoon when I visited.

There were four large TV screens mounted on the walls and as far as I could see no-one was paying them any attention. The bar counter front consists of brightly coloured wooden blocks; behind the servery there was a depiction of the brewing process on the wall, as well as a bright neon sign proclaiming that "craft is king". This is a bright and modern sort of place, but clearly too crowded and too noisy to be comfortable spending any length of time - well, I wouldn't want to anyway. It's not my sort of place, but the introduction of real ale is certainly an improvement on its former incarnation.

On 8th February 2019 - rating: 4
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Alan Winfield left this review about Slug & Lettuce

The Slug and Lettuce is housed in a nice old building with roads either side of it.
Once inside there is a large single oblong shaped room with the bar to the rear,the seating is mainly normal tables and a few tall ones,the room looked fairly grand in my opinion.
There was only one real ale on the bar which was GK IPA,this was a decent enough drink.
Background music was playing,the pub was almost empty on my Tuesday afternoon visit.
This seemed a pleasant enough pub to have a drink in.

Pub visited 26/5/2015

On 26th May 2015 - rating: 6
[User has posted 6113 recommendations about 6113 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Steve C left this review about Slug & Lettuce

This place is fantastic for taking a leak after scoffing down a large pasty from the shop just over the road. I usually feel obliged to buy a half when I use a pubs facilities, but I was unable too as ironically the staff seemed more concerned about looking at the new rota to see when they were all next working.

On 7th January 2009 - rating: 3
[User has posted 5179 recommendations about 5148 pubs]