You know the place: crown glass windows, button-back banquettes, patterned carpets curling at the edges. A flyer boasting about the Premier League football coverage. Five pints on tap, three of them ales. No food, save for scampi fries, pork scratchings and something indeterminate pickled.
These pubs are the bread and butter of our proud nation. They were never supposed to be cool. But now, everywhere you turn, trendy young people populate them, cramming their smoking areas and supping their Guinness. As per last week’s headlines, Gen Z are apparently causing the death of the post work pint, but in London that simply doesn’t ring true, at least in some places. If you need proof, just look to the Army & Navy (1-3 Matthias Road, N16, @the_army_and_navy_pub_n168nn), the Blue Posts (22 Berwick Street, W1F, theblueposts.net), the King’s Arms (98 Kennington Lane, SE11, @kings.arms.kennington) and the Lord Clyde (27 Clennam Street, SE1, 020 7407 5643). In fact, you don’t even need to look; they practically rumble with popularity, as well as the tell-tale sound of Lime bikes locking and unlocking nearby.
