So, THIS is what Landlord should taste like. The Bricklayers Arms, Putney

May 2025. Putney.

Two and a half hours after leaving “home” I’d got my rare Putney tick, with my remaining London newbies so spread over the capital I had no chance of a second.

So how about some bonus Putney pubbing ?

The Half Moon is a famous music venue,

the Duke’s Head is your archetypal Thames-side Youngs sprawler,

but it’s the backstreet Bricklayers Arms you want, long ago London’s Go To for Tim Taylor Landlord the way the Express is for Bass.

However, things change. The Waterman looks a bit too quiet, albeit on a Monday evening away from the river,

and the first group to come in stick firmly to Guinness and G & Ts, and the second bank of pumps is worryingly large.

So it is with some surprise that I declare the Landlord the best I’ve had in all of London (yes, yes, even better than Madonna’s favourite). And it feels an incredibly cosy pub as the trade finally arrives.

Cool and chewy (NBSS 4), the sort of pint which CAMRA insists if you find you MUST tell a fellow CAMRA member (probably by post) and have a second.

But I don’t, not today, even when (spookily) the soundtrack takes in Hall & Oates and Stevie Wonder for a second pub in a row.

I’m partial to “Sara Smile“, even more so to “Kiss On My List“; would I find that at my 3rd pub.

Oh, no, far from it.

Unknown's avatar

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

9 thoughts on “So, THIS is what Landlord should taste like. The Bricklayers Arms, Putney”

  1. I loved the Bricklayer’s Arms when I was there in late March, it’s something of a backstreet gem. I had the XPA which was spot on.

    It was worryingly quiet then, as you found, and this was at about one on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Busier before football, I guess, Phil, and it’s not one of the riverfront pubs younger folk head to. Last year I visited a pub between Fulham and Hammersmith that backed on to the Thames and couldn’t move.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Indeed. Afterwards I visited the Wetherspoon, which is on the river bank, and it was very busy despite being a trial site for the new “no steak” menu.

        Like

  2. It’s criminal that customers having to sit on barrels outside a pub – if they’re there. Anywhere in continental Europe there’d be a couple of tables outside on a street that gets very little passing traffic.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Yes indeed, proper seating should be a condition for premises licenses being granted.
      We need a consumer group for pub goers to get things like this sorted out.

      Like

      Reply

      2. Well there wasn’t much wrong with the Fleece at Bretforton last time I used it.

        Like

  3. Not been to the Bricklayer’s in ages, but I did see a band at the Half Moon not so long ago and they had cask on there. Not Landlord mind but can’t have everything.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to Anonymous Cancel reply