Categories
london pubs

The Prince of Wales, Kennington

The view from inside the Prince of Wales pub

It’s a shame Shepherd Neame’s standard beers are so boring, because a lot of their London pubs are really nicely located and friendly.

The Prince of Wales in Kennington in south east London is hidden off the main road in a square which looks like it hasn’t been touched since early in the reign of Queen Victoria. There’s a chalky, sandy square surrounded by trees where people play boules on hot afternoons. The pub itself has lots of windows, a beautiful frontage and hanging baskets. As long as you can put up with posh people shouting about RADA and cricket, it’s absolutely charming.

We drank slightly tart Spitfire (it was in good condition — that’s just how it tastes) and grassy Master Brew and felt very happy to be alive.

Weirdly, on the table by the window was a middle class family we last saw in a beer garden in Wuerzburg last summer. Are we under surveillance?

5 replies on “The Prince of Wales, Kennington”

Sounds lovely. Excuse the ignorance of this stupid northerner, but are posh people not the indigenous spices of Kensington? – I think I’d be able to put up with them.

I must get down that way someday and see if you are right about Shephard Neame’s beers, we don’t get them up here. But it just shows, OK beer in a great pub is magic.

Kensington, yes. Kennington, not so much. But there’s nowhere in London that isn’t a bit posh. This particular pub isn’t far from the Oval, hence the cricket connection.

Yes, true, but there are loads of posh people (or at least very middle class ones) hidden away there, too — up Telegraph Hill, for starters. New Cross used to be posh, hence the massive town houses along the main road, like the one Barnes Wallis used to live in.

Even Elephant and Castle, which Boak’s dad reckons will be the last place in London to gentrify, has security-gated yuppie tower blocks these days.

how strange that you saw those people, the really can feel very small at times. and yes, setting can often be the difference and make a mediocre beer taste that much better.

Comments are closed.