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location:
address:
Grovebury Road, SE2 9BB
phone:
0871 984 3732*
* calls cost 10p/minute, click here for more about 0871 numbers.
nearest station:
Abbey Wood 
(840m) - zone 4
bus route:
469 
how to find it:
Abbey Wood: turn sharp left, then sharp left again down Felixstowe Road, parallel with the north side of the railway line. Then take the second right, Boxgrove Road and continue almost directly ahead over the junction with Eynsham Drive to reach Grovebury Road. The pub is ahead on the right, at the junction with Ampleforth Road. It's less than a ten-minute walk in all. The 469 bus also meanders there from Woolwich or Plumstead, as well as from Abbey Wood and places further afield.
click for directions to Birchwood from wherever you areclick here for a larger map
Located just a brick's throw from a near-devastated edge-of-civilisation cityscape of decaying garages and houses draped with England flags, with the tang of Beckton sewage works evident on the bitter marshland wind, the Birchwood stands out as a haven of warmth and welcome. Even its sign-an elegant, sparkling mosaic, depicting a birch leaf, topped by a big chunky gold-plated cockerel, suggests that this pub has greater ambitions than do the other unspeakably, despicably, dire drinking dens in this vile neighbourhood. Inside, a silent orchestra of musical instruments hang from the ceiling and walls-lots of brass, but also a fiddle and a bodhran, with a Galway road sign adding to the very slight Irish flavour. There's also a small library, of sorts, and a collection of Toby mugs, which sit comfortably amid the Tudorbethan-effect interior, wood beams and all that. Although you're bound to hear a fair bit of effing and blinding here, all in all this is a lot less rough n ready than other pubs nearby, and, despite its slightly obscure location, is a fair bit more lively than most of them too. This pub, which in other contexts, might be just a fairly ordinary, but reasonably pleasant, place of respite, is a real asset to the area.
5/02/2006
Sky TV (small screens)
quiz night Thursday
darts
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