Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 5 and Version 4 of Red Lion, E11 3AA

Antic pub in Leytonstone.

Located on Leytonstone High Road opposite the junction with Church Lane, the Red Lion has stood for over 300 years and been through many incarnations, the one prior to this being a South African bar called Zulus photo. With its acquisition by Antic and grand reopening on 15 June 2011, it has now returned to being a community local.

The pub is still a little rough around the edges — the floorboards are dusty and it took a few weeks for the accessible toilet to open. I hear the regular toilets have holes in the wall with pipes or wires sticking out; it's a work in progress. The kitchen should follow later in summer 2011. The space is big and open plan, and the lack of carpet or curtains means it gets quite noisy and in some seats can be hard to hear your friends.

They have an impressive selection of drinks — ten handpumps and five keg taps, usually with at least seven real ales on cask, often a real cider too, and three more ales on keg along with a cider and a lager. Cask selections change every day or two and as of July 2011 have recently included Redemption Urban Dusk, Thornbridge Jaipur, Purity UBU and Brodies Amarilla. CAMRA members get a 10% discount on ale.

Otherwise, there’s the traditional fare of lagers and ciders on tap, but these are backed up by several interesting alternatives in bottles, several organic and single varietal ciders for example. There are a good range of spirits too, usually of a high quality — Hendricks gin for example — and even three tequilas!

Although they don’t yet serve food from the kitchen, they offer pork pies and scotch eggs, and vegetarian versions of both (my friend enjoyed the veggie scotch egg). They also have cashew nuts in jars, flavoured with either salt and pepper or chilli. This, as well as Furrows crisps, meant that we didn’t go hungry.

Flash's verdict: Although it’s only been open a month at the time of writing, it's already establishing itself as the sort of place where you'll run into someone you know. Altogether, it's got off to a promising start, and is already attracting a good crowd through the doors. With the addition of noise-muffling drapes around the window, and of course hot meals, it would be an even better venue.

See also:

• East London Drinker report on the opening night
• Boak & Bailey blog post
• Ten-Inch Wheels report on the Red Lion's first beer order
• Beer In The Evening comments

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