Stop trying to make a pub something it isn't
It doesn't need to be a restaurant. It needs to have a soul.
My enviable job as Lifestyle Editor means that I receive an unenviable volume of press releases every day. Most of them barely get a look-in. A few hit the mark and earn replies. Some stand out for more quizzical reasons, as did one announcing the launch of a pub in Battersea Power Station, SW11. ‘Really?’ I thought. A pub in a shopping mall? Those don’t really go together, unless it’s the Wetherspoons at Heathrow Terminal 5, in which case they absolutely do.
The pub in question is called The Hero’s Return — not to be confused with The Hero, a pub in Maida Vale, W9. The two hostelries share similar DNA: both belong to a new school of pub where the focus has shifted from the bar to the dining room. Overseeing the food at The Hero’s Return is Jonathan Woolway, an alumnus of London’s best restaurant: St John, EC1.
One cannot help but wonder if these pubs are really pubs. Our licensing laws do not prevent restaurants from calling themselves pubs, so long as they have a bar and can serve drinks on their own without a meal. Should this really be enough to qualify them, however? Above anything else, the pub is a watering hole: a space for friends and neighbours to gather, drink, play cards and perhaps join a trivia night. I find it odd when people go to the pub to read — or have a meeting. (They do.)
'The search for conviviality (what young people call "vibes") has replaced the pursuit of the edible'
Why, given the opportunity, would a restaurant choose to call itself a pub? Decades ago, the idea would have been unfathomable. Pubs wanted to call themselves restaurants, boasting of their brand-new dining rooms as the nation’s culinary nous and expectations rose for the first time. They attempted to shed their image as outmoded dives, good only for darts and men called Keith.
These days, the opposite is true. With good food to be found on every street corner, the playing field has changed. A restaurant can distinguish itself if it offers a convincing semblance of the pubs of yore — no matter how contrived. The search for conviviality (what young people call ‘vibes’) has replaced the pursuit of the edible in a city that frequently tops global dining rankings.
Perhaps the pub is the most unlikely victor of our glossy and artificial times. Why not have one in the same Battersea building that houses Apple’s UK headquarters?
But at the same time, why not preserve the essence of what makes a pub great. With that in mind, below is a short list of some of our favourite pubs in London; bastions in a strong tide, refusing to move with the times.
The Shakespeares Head, Islington
One of London's finest flat-roof pubs, there's almost too much to love about the welcoming Shakespeares Head. I adore the giant charity cheques and faded actors' headshots on the walls, the jukebox (which was free the last time we visited), the old school sandwich counter and the giddy afternoon rush of friendly posties from nearby Mount Pleasant HQ. Also, there's no apostrophe on the sign, so maybe the head doesn't actually belong to Shakespeare?
— Leonie Cooper, food & drink editor 'Time Out' and Co-host of Messy Lunch
The Victoria, Bermondsey
Like Tortuga in Pirates of the Caribbean, you'll never find The Victoria unless you know where it is. Not only is it hidden down a small residential street in SE1, it's also hidden in 1974. Fixtures and fittings are straight out of central casting (and are recognisable from many television shows filmed there, such as The Gold), while the pièce de résistance is a central horseshoe bar.
— James Fisher, Digital Commissioning Editor
The Nag's Head
The Nag’s Head on Kinnerton Street would feel familiar to the grooms and carriage drivers who drank here in the early 19th -century when this tranquil corner of Belgravia provided transport to residents of Wilton Crescent and Belgrave Square. Too many characterful quirks to mention. If you know, you know.
— Giles Kime, Interiors Editor
The Southampton Arms, Kentish Town
Only serves sausage rolls and often has a man in the corner playing an instrument he has whittled himself.
— Emma Hughes, acting Assistant Features Editor
Fox & Hounds, Belgravia
The man who created Coronation Street lived on this block off the Pimlico Road, so there is a theory the Fox inspired the Rovers' Return. It's a proper locals pub where you'll meet people from all walks of life, including, but not limited to, Chelsea pensioners, Pimlico road antiques dealers and interior design mavens, Conservative MPs, and BAFTA-winning actors who are doing plays around the corner at the Royal Court (back in the day, O'Toole and Harris, more recently Ben Whishaw).
All answer to the landlady Dee Dean and her enormous German shepherds. A punter once mentioned out loud that she bares a likeness to Eva Braun. He was never seen again.
— Adam Hay-Nicholls, journalist and author
The Coach and Horses, Soho
That carpet has seen it all, including I believe much urine.
— Will Hosie, Lifestyle Editor
