The Great North Wood Pub, West Norwood SE27

BY BILL LACY

It is curious time to be writing about pubs. One has to partly rely on the memories of the good times and the hope that we will see these again.

The other day I walked past a boarded up pub and I couldn’t work out whether it had been closed for good or whether the boards were up for security reasons until the pub opened again. I permitted myself to believe, to hope, the latter.

In the absence of even the slightly odd experience of a Covid-compliant pub, we can only rely on takeaways and click-and-collect; not the same experience of course, but a lifeline for many pubs, one which may be tragically cut off if recent mutterings about imminent tougher restrictions are to be believed.

Some pubs have adapted well to the new world; others less so, but it is simply beyond many small operations to set up things like apps.

One pub that has adapted is The Great North Wood, a cracking pub just outside West Norwood station.

Sadly, it is closed for now but worth adding to the list of must-visit destinations once the hospitality industry re-opens.

Station pubs can be funny places. Some are downright dreadful, with the permanent customer flow of travellers not encouraging to innovation (a separate concept entirely are pubs within stations – some of which, particularly in historic large railway stations, are wonderful.

The Great North Wood, while nodding to its station vicinity – its website proudly says it is just by platform 1, and there’s a departure board in the pub itself – is much more than that.

The food is very highly rated – it says it’s good pub grub, but the menu is more restaurant like, with offerings such as slow cooked beef cheek and herb-encrusted pork loin, and excellent Sunday roasts.

So it’s adapted well, but of course it is still a diminished experience being unable to go inside a pub. A hand passing you food out of a hatch doesn’t cut it for me. So to sustain me I also rely on the good memories and the construction of a mental map of where I may visit at the end of this dystopian novel we’re living through.

I have great memories of The Great North Wood. The first time I went there was because I was passing through West Norwood station; one pint turned into three and a missed train. I remember chatting to a friendly barman who The Great North Wood by Bill Lacy knew his beer.

It has one of those proper circular bars that indisputably marks it as a pub, although the seating areas are very civilised and it can feel like a restaurant as well.

The beer selections are fine and local – breweries such as Canopy, London Beer Factory and Brixton are represented.

The second time I went back was for a special trip as part of a group (those were the days) for a roast. The fine building has been a watering hole since the 18 th century. Let’s hope it has an equally splendid future.