Picture of Southampton Arms, NW5 1LE

Historical version 12 of Southampton Arms, NW5 1LE (view current version)

Very good real ale and real cider pub in Gospel Oak.

Inside it's rather small, comprising a long thin space, decked out with rickety wooden chairs, benches and tables, and a rough wooden floor. There are about three large tables (two in booths by the front window, one a long table opposite the bar), as well as a few smaller tables towards the back. There's a beer garden out the back with some shelter. Although there's a nice big window at the front to let the daylight in, it's very dimly lit in the evening, to the point where it's difficult to read a book. Music is provided via a turntable behind the bar — they have a policy of only playing vinyl.

They serve an interesting range of real ales and ciders, as well as two Camden Brewery lagers (£3.20/pint) as of October 2010 (these two taps had previously been Meantime). Drinks are served in dimpled handled jugs (except the lagers). As of July 2010, all ciders and perries are £3.20 (a four-pint jug is £12.20) and real ales are £2.90 (with a four-pint jug £11.20). They will do four-pint takeaways, charging you a £2 deposit for the container.

On bob's July 2010 visit all 12 hand pumps photo had something on, and there were three extra poly-pins of cider on behind the bar, for a total of 7 ales, 7 ciders and 1 perry — examples included Ottley No. 1, Maypole Mild, Chocwork Orange, and Dark Star Extra Stout (the latter of these being the only ale coming from a brewery you regularly see elsewhere). Two of the ales were finished during our visit and replaced with something different. All of the ales were very good, as were the ciders and the perry. On Ewan's visit a couple of days later, there were 7 ales and 4 ciders (including ales by Dark Star, Red Squirrel, Art Brew and others, with ciders by Millwhites, Burrow Hill). We also noticed that they had a suggestion form for beer or ciders you would like them to get.

More handpulls had been added by Ewan's October 2010 visit, with an additional six along on the wall behind the bar, all offering ciders on that visit.

Food is pretty basic, consisting of pork pies (£3 for half a large one) photo, sausage rolls, pickled eggs, scotch eggs (including vegetarian ones), a cheese selection, salami, and roast pork baps. bob's pork pie was very tasty and had the right amount of jelly, i.e. not noticeably any. The sausage roll was good too, with lots of onion giving the sausagemeat a nice sweet taste.

On a Thursday night it was busy inside and out with a crowd of friendly people. The bar staff were pleasant and seemed to be actually enjoying themselves.

They accept cash only. According to a board seen in September 2010, there's a quiz night on Mondays, and live piano music on Wednesdays from 8pm and Sundays from 6pm.

bob's verdict: As a real ale drinker, I'd say this pub has joined the ten or so pubs in London which are really worth going to. If you drink real cider you should stop what you're doing and go right now.

Accessibility: A step up to get in. At least one extra step to the gents', which are technically outside. There is not much room to manoeuvre inside.

See also:

Last visited by bob et al., June 2011. Opening hours taken from the Southampton Arms website, August 2010.
OS X co-ord: 528614 OS Y co-ord: 185749 (Latitude: 51.555468 Longitude: -0.144608)
This is version 12 (as of 2011-09-17 13:14:51). View current version. List all versions.