Bars & Pubs

This unmodernised back-street boozer is a surprise find barely 50 metres from Leytonstone High Road and within sight of its vile drive-thru McDonalds. Behind the etched-glass saloon door and half-net curtains, some might describe the basic two-bar interior as tatty. Others would use the word 'comfortable', since friendly service, three pumps dispensing reliably well-kept ales and prints of olde E11 create a lived-in feel - no surprise, since the pub was actually created in the 1850s by knocking together two of the neighbourhood's early Victorian cottages.

Time Out Bars, Pubs & Clubs Guide 2008/9