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Would you believe it? Homerton’s become a fashionable drinking destination. In fact, you could even plan yourself a little E9 pub crawl, stopping off at the Plough, the Gun, the enduring Elderfield, the Jackdaw & Star and this recently reopened pub. It’s massive: you could bring your pals, their pals and everyone they know on Facebook and there’d still be room to use the pool tables.
The pub was rebuilt in 1915 with inimitable wartime sobriety, resulting in an understated space largely untouched by the varied fashions of the following century.
There’s a strong Cornish connection: meat, fish and veg arrives from the south-west daily, before being used in superior pub dishes. Our burger was pepped up with a sharp sweetcorn relish, a specials board listed autumnal bacon chop with sauerkraut and a bowl of pickled veg included mini carrots, almonds and cucumbers.
There’s a happy hour, which offers selected pints, house wines and bloody marys at £3. Drinks are a Hackney/Cornwall combo too, with real ales from the Atlantic coast as well as the grubby heart of Hackney (Five Points pale ale, £3.90 a pint). Fortunately, that’s where the Cornish connection ends – outsiders are made welcome and it doesn’t take hours to get there. Plus it’s doubtful anyone has a second home in Homerton, up-and-coming though it may well be.