Stonch lives in London, where he runs a pub.The Sultan, South Wimbledon
Pub crawls are good things, but I try to avoid punctuating them with epic tube journeys. I start getting nervous outside of Zone 1, and the panic attacks begin when I cross the border into Zone 3. Beyond that I usually pass out, just before my wallet and kidneys get stolen.
Unfortunately for me, not all of London's best pubs are within walking distance of Clerkenwell Green: The Sultan, Hopback Brewery's only London tied house, is in South Wimbledon. To steel our nerves ahead of the journey, we sought fortitude in a shared 75cl bottle of Chimay Grand Reserve at The Crown Tavern. We continued the crawl by sinking a Samuel Smith Taddy Porter each at The Cittie of Yorke, before heading south.
We arrived at Colliers Wood station after half an hour of Northern Line misery, sober as judges again. From the difference in atmospheric pressure and the hungry eyes of feral, shoeless children, we knew we were deep in suburb country. The pub was about 10 minutes away, housed in a 1950s building on a quiet residential street. This was my first visit.
The Sultan, named after a famous racehorse, retains a traditional two bar layout, with a paved beer garden accessible through French windows. It was named Time Out's pub of the year a few years ago. This is a proper community pub, and no mistake. There's a relaxed, unpretentious air to the place, and I'm sure it's a great local. If you're a true beer hunter, this is worth the journey.
We started our session with two pints of Hopback Entire Stout and a bag of scampi fries, and got settled into a chat with the local beardy contingent. The Stout was perfectly sessionable, light in flavour for the style. We followed up with a pint of Hopback GFB, a 3.5% golden bitter with a clean, floral taste and a light hop bite. Summer Lightning and a seasonal were the other ales on offer. A great line-up.
Geoff Strawbridge, organiser of the recent Battersea Beer Festival and editor of the London Drinker, was in the house. He took us to the The Traflagar Freehouse a few streets away for a quick pint of Cottage Black Prince Mild. Geoff's son Martin is a brewer in Downton, Wiltshire, and he's producing some interesting beers, including a proper 6.8% abv IPA.
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After our pint at the Traf, we said goodbye to Geoff then made for The Wibbas Down Inn, a lively Wetherspoons by Wimbledon Station. Our plan to have a single pint of Exmoor Gold gave way to lashings of real cider. Clio Jon ended up repeating his St Albans performance, falling asleep on the train home and missing his stop. The berk.
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Information:
- The Crown Tavern is at 43 Clerkenwell Green, EC1R 0EG (Tel: 020 7253 4973, map). It's a local of mine. You can read my full review of the pub here.
- The Cittie of Yorke is at 22 High Holborn, WC1V 6BS, Tel: 020 7242 7670, map). It's part of Samuel Smith's London pub estate, which was the subject of my article Yorkshire beers, London pubs.
- The Sultan is at 78 Norman Rd, Wimbledon, SW19 1BN (Tel: 0208 542 4532 map, website).
- The Hopback Brewery is based in Salisbury, and has a website.
- The Trafalgar Freehouse is at 23 High Path, Merton, London, SW19 2JY (Tel: 020 85425342 map, website).
- You can find out a little more about the Downton Brewery here. A list of their beers, past and present, is on Ratebeer.com.
10 comments:
Downton Brewery and Hopback Brewery are based within 100 yards of each other on the trading estate in Downton, Wiltshire. They share drays, bottling facilities and telesales operations but Downton Brewery is not officially part of Hopback.
The Chimera IPA, which you refer to, is an excellent example of the type - dry and hoppy as it should be. Let me know if you want a bottle for review.
The other Downton beers often show remarkable similarity with those from the Hopback range.
AbbeyStores, a bottle for review would be absolutely fantastic - sounds like a great beer. Apparently the brewer's grandmother is particularly keen on it! Drop me an email at grinerine@gmail.com when you get a moment, cheers.
Ah, The Sultan - used to love that place when I was lucky enough to live a two minute walk away.
We made the trip down there last summer as one of our Saturday pub wanderings - we try and go somewhere in London and environs that we don't know - and we were a bit disappointed with the Sultan - beer OKish but not as good as some of their other tied houses (such as the Hopleaf at Reading). The barmaid was more interested in telling all and sundry about her love life...no thanks pet!
The Traf was OK but rather underwhelming.
I think we just expected more from them after reading their adverts in London Drinker.
I don't think we'll be rushing back to either as it's a bit of as schlep but OK if you live local I suppose.
However there's a very decent off-licence between the two pubs on Merton High Street - has a lot of foreign and UK beers - well worth dropping into.
I must admit the Traf comes as a bit of a shock when you walk in - a bit like someone's living room (a living room with a fully stocked bar and a dart board that is).
We only stayed for the one, but I must say the beer is excellent in terms of quality and range. Dark Star Hophead is a regular, they had on two dark milds, a dark bitter and something else I can't recall. They also had a few interesting bottle conditioned ales, including Worthington's White Shield and Gales Old.
If I lived local I'd go there for the beer, but agree it isin't worth the trip alone, especially if you aren't sold on the Sultan either.
stonch,
Urgent question. I need to find somewhere nice in our mutual neck of the woods (City/Clerkenwell/Shoreditch/Islington) to drink proper cider tonight.
The Wenlock is good when Thatcher's Cheddar Valley is on but they don't at present and I am not really a fan of the New Forest ciders which they usually have.
I'd be content with Weston's Organic or Old Rosie if I could find it somewhere other than a Wetherspoons. What do they have at the Crown?
MTK.
Scoffer - The Crown had Westons Organic on last time I was in. Give them a call on 7253 4973 to check.
As you know, real cicer's pretty rare. Outside of obvious real ale pubs like The Wenlock and The Head of Steam/Doric Arch, there's Wetherspoons and the upmarket M&B pubs like The Crown.
Another M&B pub that always seems to have Westons on hand pump is the Marquis of Cornwallis on Marchmonth Street in Bloomsbury - but that's a bit of a hike from Clerkenwell, even further from the City.
Stonch,
Thanks, that's good. I am glad that it's slowly becoming easier to find proper cider around here. Magners is rotten stuff but it seems to have made cider something that landlords consider worth the effort now.
The Crown has Weston's Vintage on.
Thanks for the tips. Tap me for a pint next time I'm in the Crown. I'll be the fat lad in a suit.
"I'll be the fat lad in a suit."
Are you sure we aren't related?
"Are you sure we aren't related?"
So you, too, blame genetics rather than beer and curry (and sitting down to consume the same) for your gut. The coincidences grow..
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