Charles Dickens The

Bar

160 Union Street, Southwark
London, England, SE1 0LH
United Kingdom

+44 (0)20 7401 3744 | map
PLACE STATS
Average:
3.7
Reviews:
1
Ratings:
2
pDev:
1.35%
View: Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews.
 
Rated: 3.75 by flyers68 from Pennsylvania

Jul 19, 2014
Photo of wl0307
Reviewed by wl0307 from England

3.64/5  rDev -1.6%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4
A back-street local freehouse roughly half-way b/w the Southwark and London Bridge stations. I first heard of this pub from its ads. on the London Drinker's magazine, and was intrigued by its claim to have 4-6 real ales available constantly. It doesn't happen to many pubs in that area, mind you.

Visiting there after work on a rainy Sunday evening. On my entry I found myself "welcomed" by a cheering crowd lively engaged in a live football match b/w Arsenal and Man. United. The pub is frequented by the locals, but it seems after the match most people left without wanting to enjoy another pint of good real ales they had to offer~~

The interior is quite simplistic, not pretentious: wooden furnitures, wooden floor, wood-panelled walls, a lot of wood... The fairly big front room extends all the way to the rear, with a semi-detached room serving as both non-smoking and dining area. There are 6 handpumps at the spacious rectangular bar, with 5 beers on (Dark Star Hophead and APA, Harvey's Best, Sharp Atlantic IPA, Hog's Back's Tea-chaser, while Adnam's bitter was gone). Both Dark Star brews were in superb condition, Hog's Back was so so and Sharp was apparently off! As I enquired about the off-thing, the foreign landlady replied "it is down to personal tastes", for some people had been drinking it throughout the match and didn't complain(!). But, of course, she was more than happy to replace it with something else for me (...thank Lord). Naturally I went back to Dark Star.

Food seems to be another feature in this place, with some hearty pub fair and cafe-style snacks, accompanied by a short but rather smart wine list. All in all, this is a quite friendly local freehouse with dedication to real ales, but the quality of beers, as I experienced, is a bit inconsistent. Not a must-vist/atmospheric pub, to be honest. But no harm done if one does insist on finding a genuine real ale freehouse in London Bridge area apart from the famous Market Porter.
Apr 30, 2006
Charles Dickens The in London, GB2, United Kingdom
Place rating: 3.7 out of 5 with 2 ratings