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Detail Pages
The Great North Wood, West Norwood, SE27
SE27
SE27 0HS
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Great North Wood
This is a good sized, opened out pub with a bit of a modern, almost gastro-pub feel to it, located on the main road through West Norwood, close to the station. The room has a scuffed floorboarded interior with large arch-shaped windows along the front and left walls, a mix of plain and bare brick walls and a chunky central servery. The bar has an interesting counter, with curved ends, red frontage and a thick top, with a island unit in the place of a traditional bar back, the original having presumably been lost when the pub was knocked through into one large room. A dumb waiter has been retained though and there’s a decent beer bottle collection next to it. Also of note here is the train departure board for West Norwood station, which is very handy if you’re heading off by train after your visit here. The left-hand side of the pub is nice and bright and has been opened out a lot, allowing plenty of tables and chairs to run along the end wall whilst leaving plenty of standing room nearer the bar. Further back, an exposed brick wall has a nice fireplace and shelves full of board games. The right-hand side of the pub has a lot less natural light, so feels darker and a little cosier as a result. Two tows of tables and chairs, a smart brick fireplace with a large mirror above and plants along the mantelpiece make it feel homely enough and the plants are complimented by fresh flowers on each table. TV screens were showing muted coverage of a cricket match on both sides of the pub and a soul and funk soundtrack played away quietly in the background. There’s a large beer garden to the rear of the pub with plenty of seating, whilst some punters had opted to drink along side the road on the numerous picnic benches along the front pavement.
I was a bit surprised to find three beers on handpull, all from the Sambrooks Brewery – Wandle, Session and White Gold – with a real cider making up the numbers. The White Gold was in decent enough shape, but not the most distinctive beer in recent memory. Plenty of punters were eating and I was a bit surprised to find quite a few children in here during the post-work hours.
This place has quite a nice contemporary feel to it and offers a few different spaces from which to enjoy your drinks. As this type of modern makeover goes, I thought things were done fairly well and I enjoyed my visit, despite the predominance of diners around much of the room. It’s a decent addition to the local pub scene, meriting a look if you’re in the area.
On 18th November 2019
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Great North Wood
Substantial, corner pub with two attractive façades enlivened by some hanging baskets. The interior has been given a very thorough gastro-pub makeover, with a mix of traditional and modern furniture that seems to work quite well. With plenty of windows and a reasonably high ceiling, the 'U'-shaped bar feels quite airy. There is a further table-service seating area and a smart restaurant area at first floor level, and there are also a few small tables out on the pavement. Four real ales on handpump: Runner and Lazarus from Truman's, Brixton Effra Ale and Dark Star Partridge (£4.10).
On 5th August 2017
- rating: 7
[User has posted 8117 recommendations about 8117 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Alan Winfield left this review about The Great North Wood
The Great North Wood is a large and fairly grand looking pub that is very close to West Norwood Train station and just up from the Horns Tavern but on the opposite side of the road.
Once inside there is a single room which is wrapped around the bar on three sides,the room is bare boarded,the seating tall tables and stools to the front and mainly normal tables and chairs elsewhere plus a free standing wooden bench seat.
There were four real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Harveys Sussex Wild Hop which went down well,the other beers were Sambrooks Pumpkin Pale Ale,Twickenham Naked Ladies and Twickenham Redhead.
The pub was very busy with yummy mummys and daddies and their young children.
Background music was playing.
This is a decent enough pub to do of on a pub crawl round the area like i was.
Pub visited 16/4/2016
On 21st May 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 6113 recommendations about 6113 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about The Great North Wood
A large high ceilinged space with a central horseshoe bar, distressed boarded floor and scrubbed tables. There are those uncomfortable high tables and stools along the run of the front windows but thankfully more standard seating elsewhere. Lots of exposed decent quality stock brickwork, a log burning stove, scores of beer bottles above the bar back and over the entrance lobby. A piano sits against a dividing partition and the room has a fair number of large potted plants. Framed colourful posters of local scenes adorn the walls while a set of staggered shelves hold some old hardbacked books.
A busy place full of a mid thirties type of crowd, many with youngsters in tow, presumably having lunched and whiling away a Saturday afternoon. Wine is heavily promoted, some sort of festival was advertised, but naturally I stuck to the beer. Four on, Belleville Battersea Brownstone plus Commonside Pale Ale (£4.10), Old Slug Porter and Sambrook's Wandle. A decent drop of local beer and a nice laid back vibe in here.
On 10th April 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 The Great North Wood
What a difference a few years make. This pub is unrecognisable from the pub I visited back in 2008; and that pub was unrecognisable from the pub I knew well back in the 60s. As well as the name change, it's been completely made over. Normally I'm not in favour of makeovers, but in this case I am, because the pub had already been pretty much wrecked from the traditional Courage pub it used to be. It still has the central horseshoe bar, but now it's got a chunky wooden surface. By the windows is a row of tall tables with incredibly uncomfortable narrow tall stools, but at the sides of the room are more taditional furnishings, and with a small room at the back having the obligatory sofas. The fruit machines have all been given the heave-ho I’m pleased to say, but there are at least a couple of large screen TVs, but switched off when I was in on Wednesday afternoon. As you might expect there’s a good amount of battleship grey around the place, thus adhering to the gastropub formula.
There were single sheet lunch menus (12 – 3PM) on the tables. There’s not much in the way of pub grub, but I guess the “8oz cheeseburger with burger sauce and fries” (10.5 – presumably £10.50) qualifies, although the “rustic sausage cassoulet with toasted sourdough” (at 7.5) doesn’t. The big plus is the re-introduction of real ales, with Twickenham Naked Ladies and the Belleville trio of Balham Black, Spring Break, and Battersea Brownstone all on. All ales were £4 a pint (£2 a half). A word of caution about Belleville beers – as nice as they are, and I sampled all three – they usually come up looking a bit hazy but they are supposed to be like that. We’ve all on at least one occasion in the past been given a hazy, or even totally opaque, pint and been told “it’s real ale, it’s supposed to be like that” by someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about, but with Belleville ales it really is true.
This pub has now got the gastro feel, but it’s still very much better than it was. It was doing a decent trade when I was in, including one large table as something of a crèche. I’d go back to this one, but next time I wouldn’t sit on one of the tall round stools!
On 15th July 2014
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about Norwood Hotel
Not a lot to recommend this pub. No real ale, no character or atmosphere. Just one bar of course – I remember when it used to have two, when it was a Courage house. One side of the bar is occupied by no less than five one-armed bandits or other games machines. I don’t suppose I shall bother to visit again – The Hope around the corner is far superior.
On 20th August 2008
- rating: 3
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]