Traditional Pubs in Waterloo area

It depends, brewpubs are not hugely common but I'm sure there are ones around, like Tap East in Stratford Westfield.

 

http://www.templebrewhouse.com/

Try this place.

 

This place is worth a try. I have only been there once, a few weeks ago, but I was pretty impressed by it:

http://thekingsarmslondon.co.uk/

Also:

http://www.templebrewhouse.com/

 

Agree with this. Or at least, brewpubs basically aren't a big thing in traditional British beer culture so I wouldn't see any reason to seek them out in particular. Come to that, if you're just after traditional British styles, I'd be tempted to say that there's no particular reason to seek out microbreweries - the likes of Fullers, Harveys and Adnams do them as well as anyone, IMO. But if you do want to then you're better off looking for good free houses like the Market Porter or the Southampton Arms than brewpubs.

Agree with this!

Don't really agree with this - Nicholsons are alright for a chain, but they were never places that I'd bother seeking out when I lived in London.

Other advice - don't put too much faith in WhatPub - it literally just lists every pub with no assessment of quality, so there are going to be plenty of places on there serving shockingly out of condition beer, particularly in London, which is famously a crapshoot for cask ale quality. A better bet might be to get the Good Beer Guide (book or app), which is also produced by CAMRA but which, at least in theory, sticks to places where the beer is in consistently good condition.

HTH

 

What area were you in? I've been to a few in the Covent Garden / Leicester Square area which have been very average, pretty much just tourist traps with very poor cask care and food pretty poor for what you pay. Over the past decade or so the idea of a large beer selection has really caught on so you've got many better options to choose from.

 

Agree with those who say that traditional pubs that brew traditional beers in London are basically non-existent (or not as good quality as what you can get on cask elsewhere).
Just to pile on, I'll throw in another vote against Nicholson pubs. I can't say I've ever been to one I liked. Sort of like a Wetherspoons where you pay a little more. This might be controversial, but in my experience I've found the quality of cask ale at Wetherspoons to be better...which I chalk up to the quantity served (meaning they have to change out the casks quite often).
If you are willing to trade the UK traditional pub ambiance for quantity and quality of cask ales, I recommend Cask Pub and Kitchen or any of the Craft Beer Co locations.
Sadly, I've been quite disappointed with the Harp on my last 3 visits. It was formerly one of my favorite spots and now I'm just as likely to pass it by.
I'm not super-familiar with the Waterloo area, but a quick search of pubs on google maps around your hotel shows a few promising places. I'd be inclined to check out the Gladstone Arms near Borough station. Untapped says they have Landlord on cask right now...honestly you can't do much better if you are looking for "classic". It is near Borough Market, which I assume you may want to visit anyway as a tourist. If you are here on a Saturday, you could follow it up with the Bermondsey mile, which has a mix of breweries that do both new and classic styles.
My 25th anniversary is coming up next year. Unfortunately (or is it fortunate?), my wife doesn't drink, so beer-centric trips are rife with danger.

 

By the way, it's a bit of an aside but you might want to be prepared for the fact that cask porters are fairly scarce in the UK, cask milds are very scarce indeed, and "ESB" is a beer by Fullers rather than a style (and that most traditional pubs will very rarely sell anything over 5% ABV whatever they call it). The vast bulk of the cask trade is made up of bitters and golden ales.

I do sometimes wonder whether this forum would benefit from a "cultural leanings of England for make benefit visiting American beer geeks" sticky...

 

It is broken down by general area but here is a list of brewpubs that brew decent beer (according to my London based colleague). Also not broken down by "Modern" or "Traditional" but most of them are traditional pubs that have a small brewery on site.

Disclaimer: I wrote the software but the selections are based are done by my London colleague.

 

That's a good list, thanks for sharing. The Antelope is one of my locals, not really London London but definitely worth a visit from you're in the area.