Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 11 and Version 10 of Ivy House, SE15 3BE

First impressions are that this is a locals' pub situated just off the top of Peckham Rye, in the southern reaches of Nunhead.

Entrance is into a smallish room at the front, which has retained a lot of the traditional decoration photo. Wooden panelling announces the names of all the old Trumans beers, and an open fire keeps the main room toasty and warm in winter. There's also a fantastic back room with a stage area under a proscenium arch and gold lamé curtains, which in the past has hosted live music of all varieties (including Hugh Metcalfe's bonkers club night, the Klinker club, at which you can never be sure what to expect). There's a separate room with pool tables, and a beer garden out the back.

The Ivy House reopened under new management in June 2011, and on Kake, Ewan, and Kerry's visit in early July, the place still seemed to be finding its feet. Despite the flyers on the tables advertising film nights (Mondays), acoustic nights (Tuesdays), quiz nights (Wednesdays), funk/soul/'50s rock and roll nights (Thursdays), and live music (Fridays and Saturdays), the entertainment for the relevant evening (Thursday) seemed not to be happening; the back room was empty and although there was music playing in there (quite loudly), none of it was from any earlier than the '70s.

There are three handpulls on the part of the bar that runs through the back room, but on our visit the Greene King IPA wasn't on yet, the Adnams Bitter had just run out, and the Caledonian 80/- was undrinkably sour. They did however have Addlestone's Cloudy cider (£3.70/pint) and Cerveja Sagres.

Food is served from a menu focusing on pizzas and burgers photo of menu in July 2011. Kake's Veneto pizza (£8) photo had smoked salmon, spinach, black olives, and an egg; it wasn't bad, with a well-flavoured base and a nice runny yolk on the egg (though unfortunately most of the yolk was lost due to the pre-cutting of the pizza into squares). The olives did have a faintly unpleasant flavour, though not enough to dominate. Ewan's veggie burger (£7) photo was decent, with roast butternut squash, beetroot and carrot replacing a patty (and with maybe a few too many pickled cornichons); chips were chunky and fluffy and nicely-presented in a newspaper wrapper.

Accessibility: A step to get in. Once you're in, the bar, seating, and toilets are all on the same level.

See also:

• Fancyapint review
• Beer In The Evening comments

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