On Saturday 14 June CAMRA’s London Pubs Group visited some pubs operated by the Remarkable Pubs company. We started at midday at the European in Lea Bridge Road, Leyton. Until they closed and sold it in 2022, this was a Wetherspoon’s pub called the Drum. It was subsequently acquired by the Laine Pub Company who operated it as the Spark House before it closed again in October 2023. It was then acquired by Remarkable and refurbished in their signature Victorian style, reopening on 27 February 2025.
The pub now has a fine modern bar-back and bar counter and church pew style seating. The usual large map of the world is there, along with the light cream walls, but the boxed taxidermy is absent. The split-level floor approach to the bar counter has been retained, perhaps surprisingly, while stairs lead to a first floor open terrace seating area. Some say that the pub’s new name is a nod to Tim Martin’s views on Brexit. Adnams Ghost Ship, Five Points Best and Shepheard Neame Master Brew were available here.
Our tour took place just two days after the William the Fourth in Leyton High Road was reopened by Walthamstow’s Exale Brewery. It wasn’t on our original itinerary but many in the party diverted to take a look. This is an imposing street corner pub dating from 1897. It was designed by the famous pub architects Shoebridge & Rising for the Cannon Brewery of Clerkenwell and ultimately liveried as ‘Ind Coope’ by Allied prior to the 1989 Beer Orders. The interior has now been decorated in a combination of contemporary and traditional style, including chesterfield banquettes, bare wood flooring, duck egg blue walls and a red ceiling and red velour-topped high stools. Pleasingly, the bespoke ‘WIIIIR’ mirror lettered in 1970s Allied Brewery typeface remains. Real ales on offer were Adnams Broadside and Exale WTF pale.
A choice of buses 69 or 97 led us to the Leyton Engineer in High Road Leyton. This is a Grade II-listed building contained within part of the former Leyton Town Hall, built 1895. The initials of the former occupants, Leyton Borough Council, are visible on the rubber door mat as you enter the pub and there is a very fine terrazzo and mosaic floor.
The pub was formerly operated by Antic Pub Collective as the Leyton Technical and furnished in their trademark ‘shabby chic’ style. Following its acquisition by Remarkable, it was redecorated to the expected high quality. The trademark cream walls, stuffed birds, world map and statuary, plus a new but traditional wooden bar-back are all present, along with a ‘Red Room’, which is a feature in many Remarkable pubs. The largest bar contains the Harry Beck Booth, named after the original designer of the London Underground map, whose work features on the walls and who was born in Leyton. This pub is in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide 2025 and offers a CAMRA discount. On our visit, the Engineer was serving Five Points Brickfield Brown and Shepherd Neame Master Brew.
Next, bus route 58 took participants to the Holly Tree in Dames Road, Forest Gate, on the edge of Wanstead Flats. This was included on the tour because it had also been magnificently refurbished and was shortlisted for the 2021 CAMRA Pub Design Awards. Note the tell-tale green and gold stained-glass former Charrington windows. Once again, there is a large world wall map and a separate Red Room. The novelty factor here is the miniature railway in the pub garden, which was operating for the first time this year on the day we visited. This pub is also in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide 2025 and offers a CAMRA discount. The real ale selection was Five Points Pale, Pentrich Vivid Waves pale ale, Shepherd Neame Spitfire and Whitstable Bay pale ale.
Finally, it was back on the 58 for a rather tortuous journey via the busy Green Street to the Boleyn Tavern in Barking Road, Upton Park. The pub is Grade II listed and also rates three stars on CAMRA’s national inventory of pub interiors of outstanding historic importance. This is one of the more spectacular late-Victorian pubs around and is a prominent landmark at a crossroads right by the former West Ham football ground. It is a thoroughly exuberant piece of French-style Renaissance architecture dating from 1899-1900 and, as with the William the Fourth, was built for the Cannon Brewery by Shoebridge & Rising.
It reopened in June 2021 after a spectacular £1.5 million restoration. Remarkable’s aim was to make the interior look just as it did when the pub first opened. New hand-crafted wooden screens have been created, complete with acid-etched and brilliant-cut glass, which have enabled the pub’s original seven-bar layout to be restored. The highlight however is the truly spectacular glazed skylight that spans what would once have been the billiards room but is now a ‘Red Room’ with an open kitchen, servery and dining area.
Other quality fittings include the Victorian bar counters and bar backs, although some are modern replacements. The big arch straddling the servery on the east side is original, as are the tiled lobby on the east side, the cast-iron columns and a good deal of the etched glass. The pub’s former links to West Ham United are acknowledged by memorabilia displayed in a corridor and by portraits of famous players depicted in the dining room booths.
Legend has it that Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII and Queen of England 1533 to 1536, visited, or possibly owned, the nearby Green Street House, which later became known as Boleyn Castle. Another story is that Mahatma Gandhi visited the pub in 1931, when he apparently enjoyed a cream soda. This pub is also in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide 2025 and gives a CAMRA discount. The real ale selection was Oakham Original Pale Ale, Northern Monk Session IPA and Shepherd Neame Master Brew.
Jane Jephcote and Kim Rennie