Sometime blogging is easy. All I need to do is show you the frontage of a gorgeous backstreet London pub, and a couple of foaming pints of BBB,
and make a joke about pashminas. Job done.
Oh, and stick a map in.
I was a bit confused, as the King’s Arms sounds a bit familiar, but then it’s easy to get it mixed up with the King’s Head, which is a bit earthier but otherwise they share a Proper Pub heritage.
Trad names, no sign of craft, just reliable breweries you’ve heard of. Like Truman and Camden.
I must apologise to the Royal Oak here. We only had an hour to down a pint and walk the mile to the South Bank to pick up tickets at 7pm, which is just stupidly early.
And there was no way I was making Mrs RM run through the back streets after 2 pints. Wars have started because of less.
“Harvey’s or Landlord ?” I asked. I was glad she picked the Landlord.
Another mixed crowd, perhaps a few more tourists than you’d expect. This is the sort of English Pub the Americans sitting next to us come to see. And it was as immaculate as a New York “pub” like the Ear with staff keeping the tables spotless.
I think they were shocked how quick the Harvey’s was slipping down. But I had a cold, and beer is the best thing for a cold, apparently.
Trad toilets,
magnificently simple food,
and of course “Good Vibrations“.
Where has it been hiding, South East London CAMRA ?
retiredmartin 
Loved the opening about how “blogging is easy.” You can’t fool me, it’s hard work indeed, what with all these commenters pestering you with questions all the time. 😉
I like the idea of ordering bubble & squeak, just because it’s hardly ever on the menu anywhere over here, but I’m not sure the list of ingredients quite justifies that price!
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As you’ll know, Mark, the feedback is what makes it worthwhile.
Some posts are harder to write than others. Easy in London.
Have you had bubble and squeak? It’s not something I ever see in pubs, bar the occasional ironic gastropub. Love it though.
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Harvey’s and Landlord in the same pub! Which way to jump though. God, I’d dither. Oh fuck it, Landlord. I’d have Harvey’s next though.
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Both were better than I expected. I finished Mrs RM’s Landlord whike she was in the powder room and she was cross.
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Know it well from my time working on the South Bank.
There are more of these gems in London than some people care to admit.
The Kings Arms in Roupell Street is another cracker – the number of trains home from Waterloo I’ve missed having one for the ditch in that place …
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We attempted the Kings Arms on Roupell Street only to find it closed. It was New Year’s Day. Our taxi driver did not know where it was so we had him drop us off, and we found it ourselves.
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Not really surprising Dick.
Although there is a small bit of ( very expensive )residential housing in nearby streets the overwhelming amount of trade is with office workers heading to Waterloo station and that whole area closes down over the holidays.
Shame you didn’t make it as it’s a fine pub.
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They’ll be back 😊
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Walked past that King’s Arms. Easy to get them mixed up.
The pubs themselves in London are wonderful. Far too many segment themselves at one type of customer, and beer has traditionally been too warm. Had good cask recently though.
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“Far too many segment themselves at one type of customer” – yes, affluent customers.
But Humphrey and Tim look after everyone else.
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I was last used that Kings Arms in April 2017 on my way to Bournemouth and had a pint of Adnams Oyster Stout but don’t remember getting there during the dozens of times over the years I spent the day in Leake Street the other side of Waterloo station.
I expect pubs in the City to be closed at weekends but was disappointed a fortnight ago to find that all the pubs in Marylebone I wanted to go to were closed on a Sunday afternoon.
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Yes, I’ve noticed a few more weekend closures in Central as well.
If anything I’d have expected a few more places in the City to open up, with a large number of tourists getting off at Liverpool St to admire the Gherkin and the Crossrail offices.
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That Pashmina looks a bit manky to me -never catch me looking so tatty
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Yes you’re the Queen of the Pash. You’d both like this one though.
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What makes these good London pubs great can often be what they don’t have – kids, dogs, and loudmouths being welcome absences in many cases.
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Dogs yes, but I like children (never “kids”), loudmouths and drunks in my pubs.
You make a perceptive point though.
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I don’t mind it at all when the volume gets turned up generally in high spirits and merriness. It’s when you’re in an otherwise quiet pub, and the village bore is holding court in “his” pub, for the benefit of the whole bar that you go elsewhere for a break.
Mrs. E sometimes hides their car keys among the bar clutter, if they won’t move for her to be served.
As for children, we’ve raised four of ’em, but didn’t generally take them to the pub, except for the odd meal on holiday maybe. They didn’t screech, and they didn’t climb all over the place either. It’s not always the case, alas.
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Despite passing the end of the street many, many times, I only discovered the KA when judging beer at the World Beer Awards in August this year. Great boozer and a great write up. I’ll be back next time I’m in London.
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Thanks. Amazing how many pubs you still find for the first time.
A decade ago there was a new, plainish GBG pub near Tower Bridge that served a cracking Holt Bitter. Only lasted a year in the Guide.
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Holts ?
I know Hunphrey’s Anchor Tap and a pub now disposed of by Adnams thereabouts.
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Holt as a guest. Unusual.
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The Bhurtpore is the only pub where I occasionally drink Holts’s as guest ales, and they’ve always got their lager.
And I always have the Holts Bitter in the Hare and Hounds on Shudehill.
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Although always hard to drag oneself away from the Royal Oak, another excellent traditional back street boozer in that part of Borough is The Lord Clyde. Good to see it back in the Guide, after being dropped last year.
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You’re not the first to mention the Clyde. Did that years ago. With unlimited time and livers I’d visit again.
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I agree about Harvey’s Royal Oak, a pub I could stay in all day.
Fourteen months ago though in the Lord Clyde I was told at 2.10pm “we’ve been selling it all day” on handing back my scarcely recognisable Adnams Southwold Bitter although my £4.20 was refunded when I declined a Youngs Bitter or Doom Bar as a replacement.
I’ve done better in Bradford’s Lord Clyde.
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