Picture of Tower Bridge Arms, SE1 2UP

Historical version 9 of Tower Bridge Arms, SE1 2UP (view current version)

A modern pub serving well-sourced food and beer, part of a small South London chain, at Tower Bridge. (This pub was formerly the River Bar and before that The Copper.)

Like the other two pubs in the chain (both in Battersea), there is a strong focus on the range of beers, and all those on draft are available in third-pints. There are four handpulls for cask ale, usually including Sambrook's Wandle. There are over 20 other draft taps, with a range of beers and lagers including several from Meantime, Budvar and Budvar Dark, Porterhouse Stout and Red Ale, and several German beers, along with ciders. There's also an extensive range of bottled beers. (Menus are available on the website.)

The food menu is also put together attentively, with beer matches for most things on offer. Ewan has had an excellent salt beef and mustard bagel in here (£4.50) photo, and the snack burger (£4) photo was sufficiently good that he has no doubt the full version (£8.75) would also be excellent, whether or not you opt for the additional slab of foie gras (listed among several other extras). On a visit before noon on Saturday (they appear to open earlier, perhaps around 11am), the bacon sandwich (£6.75, with avocado and tomato in it as well) was tasty and appeared promptly. Coffee is served in dimpled half-pint glasses.

The atmosphere in here is generally quite pleasant during the day. There's a separate dining room around the back, and the bar room has plenty of tables photo, including some high stools along a bar in the middle, and when busy can get quite noisy. (On an initial Friday evening visit, it did get very difficult to hear conversations, but that was just after the pub had opened, and it was a Friday evening in any case, so this is hardly unusual.)

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Last visited by Ewan, 5 March 2011.
OS X co-ord: 533595 OS Y co-ord: 180025 (Latitude: 51.502866 Longitude: -0.074967)
This is version 9 (as of 2013-05-10 07:04:56). View current version. List all versions.