Picture of Royal Standard, CR0 1SS

Historical version 43 of Royal Standard, CR0 1SS (view current version)

  • 020 8688 9749
  • 1 Sheldon Street, CR0 1SS (streetmap) (osm) (gmap) (bingmap) (streetview)
  • noon-11pm Mon-Thu; noon-midnight Fri-Sat; noon-11pm Sun

Fuller's pub in Croydon.

It's small but cosy, traditional and friendly, and hasn't much changed over the years since bob first visited in 2004. The front section has a "public bar" feel, with room for standing as well as a few stools. Further back is more seating, with this area wrapping right the way around the bar to end in a small area with a couple of individual church-pew seats, each with a concealed misericord underneath.

There are a couple of picnic benches out the front, but there's also a proper beer garden. Although the latter is across the road from the pub, situated under the Croydon flyover, it's actually much nicer than these bare facts might suggest, and quite a pleasant place to sit out in summer; the road outside the pub is a quiet one, and the flyover traffic is high enough up that it doesn't really intrude.

The pub has a selection of board games (including Boggle), and a shelf of books which you can read in the pub or take away with you if you make a charity donation. There's also a fruit machine in the back part, and a flatscreen and dartboard in the front part. There hasn't been any music on any of our visits. According to a sign seen in January 2014, there's a pub quiz every Tuesday from 8:30pm.

They usually have several Fuller's ales on, with the regular range focused around Discovery, Chiswick, HSB (£4/pint in December 2016), ESB, and London Pride (£3.90/pint in December 2016), but also sometimes the rarer ones such as Black Cab Stout and Golden Pride (£3.50/half in December 2016).

It often opens on Christmas Day, at least in the afternoon; when bob visited on on Christmas Day 2016 the pub was quite busy but not crowded.

According to a sign in the pub in January 2014, food is served noon-10pm Mon-Sat photo of menu. They do some very good pork pies (£2.50) photo. In October 2013, bob's party had the chilli con carne with rice and tortillas (£4.75) photo, the fishfinger doorstep sandwich (£3) photo, and a plate of chips photo. In January 2014, the whitebait (£2.50) photo was decently fried and not greasy; bob missed the usual crunchy coating but Kake liked how the lack of coating let the flavour of the fish come through.

On a December 2019 visit Pride(£4.30), HSB(£4.50), ESB(£4.60) and 2 Fuller's specials (Fresh Tracks and Santa by the Surf. £4.60 each) were on. All very well kept. Pork scratchings were £1. Crisps (£1). Again they are going to be open on Xmas day. No evidence of food or a pub quiz.

Kake's verdict: One of the best pubs in the area.

Accessibility: Step at front entrance, smaller step (about an inch) at side entrance. Step-free to bar, toilets, and about half of the seating once you're in. One of the stalls in the ladies' has a door that opens outwards. The pub is quite small and access can be a bit narrow.

See also:

Last visited by bob, December 2019. Opening hours taken from sign in pub, April 2016.
OS X co-ord: 532241 OS Y co-ord: 165143 (Latitude: 51.369431 Longitude: -0.100024)
This is version 43 (as of 2019-12-15 13:34:15). View current version. List all versions.