Royal Alfred, Erith  

The narrow, but busy, Manor Road is the preferred route to Slade Green for many local drivers. The Royal Alfred is located at the residential western end of the road, before it takes in concrete works, car breakers and industrial storage facilities further east. This kind of landscape goes some way to explaining why Erith was listed in Britain's ten cheapest (most affordable - in estate agent speak) towns to buy property in 2005. The pub is a friendly enough locals place which does a job for the community here. There's no real ale or exotic lagers, unsurprisingly, and Blossom Hill in half-bottles is the fancy drink option, relatively speaking. The Royal Alfred is one of innumerable once handsome, now unkempt Victorian pubs you find all over London suburbs. It has clearly seen better days but retains a certain cosiness and charm; the original wooden glass rail over the bar remains intact, for example. On the sorrier side, the manky beer garden is festooned with overturned plastic chairs, and you feel that a DNA swab of the upholstery might implicate half of south London's postwar inhabitants. Nevertheless, this is one of the better pubs in the area.

reviewed:
29/1/2006

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

TV (small screens)

beer garden

jukebox

Link to your pub's web site