Today I thought I would try the food here as well as the beer. I had a simple burger that was superb and the beer was wonderful. There were several different Leatherbritches Brewery beers on and my favourite was The Bounder. The bounder refers to the late actor Terry Thomas. Other beers on offer included a pale ale from the Borough Brewery, Bread & Butter from the Vocation Brewery and 1215 Magna Carta from the XT Brewery. It is amazing how they can offer so many decent, well kept beers. The Borough Brewery is based not near London Bridge as I thought but in Lancaster. Interestingly the 1215 Magna Carta that was brewed for the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta had a pump label that referred to it as Magna Carter!

I can highly recommend a visit to The Mansion House pub in Kennington.  Website: http://www.oakalondon.com/about.  This is Oakham Ales’s Flagship London pub and serves their beers on cask and keg. It also has beer from some other small breweries.  The pub has a Pan Asian dining room attached.

At first sight I was put off by the website and the appearance of the pub.  It gives the impression of being a bit “posey” and modern looking.  Also, I had tried Oakham Ales before and wasn’t impressed.
However, this pub was excellent. The beers were superb with JHB being good and Citra being excellent.

The pub was empty when I arrived but filled up with all types of people during the afternoon. It appears to be quite a locals’ pub with what seemed to me to be a nice clientele. For example I noticed a large group of professional looking women out for a sociable drink, a group of what appeared to be beer connoisseurs and an eccentric looking old woman who had just been shopping.

The bar staff were excellent being friendly and knowledgeable about the beers and the history of the pub. They even brought the beers over to our table when we had finished a round. They gave good and useful advice about the different ales on offer.

Finally, another pleasant surprise was the price. The cask beers I had were all below average London prices so you don’t get ripped off here like you do in some of the more expensive London bars.