The Victoria, Bermondsey  

Located on the same street as UK's leading supplier of heating and plumbing products, the Victoria is a striking boozer. The handsome but tired Truman's exterior with an air of faded grandeur gives way inside to an island bar with leatherette bench seats around the walls. It's a shame, but the Victoria is looking pretty tired since our previous visit a while ago. Only one hand pump of the four was operational - albeit selling a decent pint of Pride - and only a couple of other people were in the pub, making for a uncomfortable atmosphere of conspicuousness and abandonment. It still does the late music at the weekends and pub grub for lunch (you can get takeaways brought in in the evening). However, as we've said many times in these pages, atmosphere is what makes a pub great and unfortunately, from our last visit, we feel the Victoria is now sadly lacking in it. With a few more punters, more ales on the pumps and a lick of paint here and there the Victoria could easily be the splendid four-pinter it once was, but for now it languishes amongst the twos - a crying shame.

reviewed:
26/08/2008

pub features:(click on an icon to see an explanation)

real ale

Sky TV

seats out front

late opening

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