Eagle Ale House

Halfway up a steep, residential street, this pub is favoured by cheeky chaps who should know better. It looks like Billy Liar’s bedroom, were Billy Liar to have been a rugby-playing Crystal Palace fan. Images of glamorous women of the Sinatra era mingle with framed programmes from Selhurst Park, memorabilia relating to England’s Rugby World Cup victory and other Brit iconography (1966, Coopers Henry and Tommy, a poster for The Italian Job). Two fireplaces assist in creating intimacy.

Ales such as BG Sips (‘Blue Monkey with a handle, please, Dolores’), 6d from Dorset’s Sixpenny Brewery and William Wilberforce Freedom Ale are crammed into the little half-square of bar counter. Dolores deals bravely with the weakening banter as the night rolls on. Occasional wives and girlfriends may be treated to a Coldridge chardonnay.