Brixton pub recommendations

[bluestreak]

i love the effra, it's one of my favourite pubs in london. i really like the albert too, there's something about the sheer atmosphere that is unlike almost any boozer i've ever been a regular in. i visited the mango place on water lane last night and found that i loved it. i imagined it to be a ghastly theme bar but it's not really, its a friendly drinking hole with tatted sofas, a selection of board games for whiling away the hours, good soundsystem and a mixed crowd.

 

[tarannau]

I love the Albert,but it's my local,even when I lived at the Oval the Albert was still my local.A good local makes you feel welcome and has people who are your Friends or will be your friends if you make an effort the Albert does this for me,it also trys to put things back into the community.it hosts benefits,puts on poetry nights,was a major part of the Brixton splash and also hosts an Offline once a month.

That's what I really like about the Albert. It may be a bit too orange and narrow in my book - I always feel a little in the way there unless in a small group - but I think Pat Mk2's done a fantastic job in managing and keeping a great feel to the place. It's far from just another bland corporate pub.

I'd urge anyone to go down to the Effra on their non-Jazz night, which always seems a much better time to go to me. That said, as much as I don't like the sound of saxophones parping at me during a quiet bevvie, it's an amazing asset - LQ remembers talking to a French girl and father who had stumbled in there and couldn't believe their luck. They had eyes of wonderment that there could be a little local playing music like that - they were far more impressed there than Ronnie Scott's for example.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

I'd urge anyone to go down to the Effra on their non-Jazz night, which always seems a much better time to go to me. That said, as much as I don't like the sound of saxophones parping at me during a quiet bevvie, it's an amazing asset - LQ remembers talking to a French girl and father who had stumbled in there and couldn't believe their luck. They had eyes of wonderment that there could be a little local playing music like that - they were far more impressed there than Ronnie Scott's for example.

Good point. The one time I went in there it was way too noodly for me, I got very bored very quickly, but it still seems to me that it's a very good thing that it should be there doing that. A pub with something unique like that is a rare and special thing, even if it's not to my taste.

 

[Andy the Don]

Really? I thought it had opened up under new owners. Has it closed since then? (in the last week or so)

When I last went for a drink there was about 3 Fridays ago it had just shut down 48 hours previously. So it may have reopenned since then (hurrah.. ) so will have to investigate tomorrow. I was told that Eddie was hoping to re-open it, but the previous landlord (Norman) has disappeared.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

In the time (thirty months) I lived in Brixton I don't think I went to the Albert as often as ten times, and I had to have my arm twisted even to achieve the score that I did. Reasons, in no particular order:

beer not good
too loud
too much smoke
too many people too fond of themselves.

Which is not to say the place is a Bad Thing, but it's not to my taste and there's too much of an in-crowd.

 

[tarannau]

too many people too fond of themselves.

How do you identify those sorts then? Do you catch them caressing their own thighs, patting themselves on the back or checking themselves in the mirror repeatedly? Is there like a scale you can appraise them on?

I rarely go into the Albert FWIW, but I hardly associate it with the 'in-crowd', whoever they might be. There's a fair few regulars mind and Pat knows a hefty number of folks - a good sign afaic - but there's hardly Norm and Cilfford propped up by the bar in the same stools every time I go in, nor a permanently stationed group of foppish fashionable dandies intimidating me at the bar.

Not too sure what you're getting at with that one.

 

[Orang Utan]

You have to have a pretty high and haughty regard for yourself to think that other people are 'too fond of themselves', especially in somewhere as normal as the Albert.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Oh, no! It's the Albert Self-Defence Organisation!

Not sure what qualifies the Albert as "normal", incidentally. If it were "normal" it would be somewhat strange for so many people to go on about it.

 

[Orang Utan]

It's just a common-or-garden pub - nothing special about it at all, which is why I prefer to drink elsewhere.

 

[tarannau]

It's 'normal' in Brixton terms because there aren't many traditional style pubs left in the centre, where style bars and clubs have become the norm. It has rare continuity and consistency compared to the other pubs in that area.

I think I've been to the Albert twice in the last 3 months or so. I'm hardly to be one of the most likely people to jump to to defend that pub's 'honour.' It's hardly my preferred local (too smoky, small and a little bland) but I can't fault the way Pat & Co run it as a community boozer.

It's strange that when someone asks you to further explain your puzzling view of the Albert as populated by the 'in-crowd' and people 'too fond of themselves,' you see fit to act defensively with more sneery and reductive 'Albert Self-Defence Organisation' nonsense. Nice...

 

[Donna Ferentes]

If you follow, the sneering was from Mr Utan ("haughty" etc). I merely gave some reasons why I never much felt drawn to going in there. I guess that sort of in-crowd reaction partly explains why I didn't much like it.

 

[Crispy]

It's just the pub where my friends drink, nothing more.

 

[Orang Utan]

I think the reason you don't like the Albert is the reason you don't like most things - the problem's with you, not everyone else. You are the Eeyore of U75.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

It's just the pub where my friends drink, nothing more.

And I guess that's true for most of the people who go there.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

I think the reason you don't like the Albert is the reason you don't like most things - the problem's with you, not everyone else. You are the Eeyore of U75.

Of course. Nobody can have any good reasons for not liking the things you like.

 

[gabi]

I actually had a nice drink in the trinity the other day after slating it earlier on this thread.. i can kinda see its charms now.... nice place just to chill in peace and read the paper.

and i can also kinda relate to what donna's saying on the albert - i get a cliquey vibe in there, but as someone else said, thats actually probably coz we're weird, not the other way..

 

[Orang Utan]

I don't especially like it, I just took umbrage at your bitter depiction of the people in there. It's not exactly a style bar full of preening Hoxtonites.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

I actually had a nice drink in the trinity the other day after slating it earlier on this thread.. i can kinda see its charms now.... nice place just to chill in peace and read the paper.

and i can also kinda relate to what donna's saying on the albert - i get a cliquey vibe in there, but as someone else said, thats actually probably coz we're weird, not the other way..

Yeah, it's no more than that - though I wish it'd be cliquey a bit more quietly, you know. Not that it matters from where I am.

The Trinity was always my favourite town centre pub, 11.01 lights-off time notwithstanding.

 

[tarannau]

I don't especially like it, I just took umbrage at your bitter depiction of the people in there. It's not exactly a style bar full of preening Hoxtonites.

Much the same here. There are undoubtedly some gobshites in the Albert, as always not helped by the proximity of alcohol, but there's surely meant to be some noise in a busy town centre local. Just because they're not the folk-singing Irish drinker stereotype doesn't mean that they're some kind of 'in-crowd' trendies.

The low ceilings, narrow bar area and thin layout of the place doesn't perhaps help mind. Which is perhaps why I tend to go to bigger places (eg Hob) where folks are generally freer to make more noise without being noticed as much.

I find the Trinity pleasant, but it's a bit of dull and monotone pub. It's a nice place for a quiet drink rather than a proper 'centre of the community' local if you know what I mean.

 

[Andy the Don]

When I last went for a drink there was about 3 Fridays ago it had just shut down 48 hours previously. So it may have reopenned since then (hurrah.. ) so will have to investigate tomorrow. I was told that Eddie was hoping to re-open it, but the previous landlord (Norman) has disappeared.

Went to the Sultan on Friday. Its been reopened by a stand in landlady, whose first act was to allow back in all the "wingnuts" who had previously been banned. So is now like the "OK Corral". All the regulars are now at the Hand in Hand just up the road. Which I have always found to be a very pleasant pub, with a better jukebox, pool & table football.

 

[Kanda]

Hand in Hand is my new local, I like it there

 

[Donna Ferentes]

I never went there although I believe my old chess club used to meet there (not at the Priory Arms in Stockwell). I used to like the Crown and Sceptre although I could never understand why the lighting was dso dim.

 

[Orang Utan]

I never went there although I believe my old chess club used to meet there (not at the Priory Arms in Stockwell). I used to like the Crown and Sceptre although I could never understand why the lighting was dso dim.

It's to protect you from the Picasso faces of the local drunks

I like the C&S - it's cheap. You can buy a round for less than a tenner.

 

[tarannau]

When I briefly ran the C&S I was glad for that dim lighting. It aids staff retention.

 

[Dubversion]

In the time (thirty months) I lived in Brixton I don't think I went to the Albert as often as ten times, and I had to have my arm twisted even to achieve the score that I did. Reasons, in no particular order:

beer not good
too loud
too much smoke
too many people too fond of themselves.

Which is not to say the place is a Bad Thing, but it's not to my taste and there's too much of an in-crowd.

what specious nonsense. Quelle surprise

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Perhaps, good sir, you can't hear the other loud voices over your own?

 

[Dubversion]

Thing is, Donna, you're a total hypocrite. The things you criticise in the Albert you would applaud in another pub if it contained 'your sort' of people. Although a more joyless and dessicated location is hard to imagine

 

[Orang Utan]

What's wrong with loud voices in a pub anyway?

 

[tarannau]

Hey. there's always Wetherspoons for that library style drinking experience.

(Apart from the Beehive of course. Group standards have slipped there)



I've just realised that Donna, fresh from dubbing me part of the "Albert Self Defence' crew, also thinks I form an 'in-crowd' with Orang, pointing to one of the reasons he doesn't visit the Albert.

Considering that neither of us really visit the Albert that much, nor have Orang and I ever been introduced, that's quite an achievement. I must be good at this in-crowd stuff.

 

[Dubversion]

I must be good at this in-crowd stuff.

In crowds are mysterious things