please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Visited in October 2015.
This wetherspoons has improved over the last few years.
Beer quality was very good.
A number youngsters all very much of the student variety and not loud no chavs.
Actually rather pleasant to sit in, even on a crowded Friday.
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Good selection of ales today as usual, new: Doom Bar from Sharps. Noticed the branded glasses. Good variety on 8 ales available and two still ciders from the pumps too. Old Rosie and Black Dragon. Also Sixpoint american craft ales 2 for £5.
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When I walk in, I always get the feeling I should take a ticket. Its like a cross between a DHSS office and an EasyJet departure lounge, with some truly horrific corporate art on the walls....That said, the beer is cheap and sometimes drinkable...good luck!
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Adnams weekend at the Brockley Barge this weekend! £1.99 a pint. Including Broadside 4.7, Ghost Ship 4.5, Gunhill 4, Fat Sprat 3.8, Topaz Gold pale ale 4%!
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My nearest Wetherspoons and always good for a couple of decent ales at a good price.
Mixed clientele from the "typical" locals to families and builders.
Never ever seen any trouble in here but apparently there has been quite a bit...as I say never seen it myself.
Food always decent as well.
Been my choice for a Christmas day drink with my Father for the last few years so it cannot be that bad.
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This won't be everyones cup of tea however if you like cheap booze and inhaling cannabis fumes in the garden you'll love it!
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Mixed reviews about this pub, but I quite like it. Staff are pretty good. It's open late every night (until 12 Sunday to Thursday and 1 on Friday and Saturday). Real Ales are around �2.35 a pint and sometimes very good. You'll probably find you like some of the customers and don't like others, but the place is big enough for everyone.
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The manager at this pub is an imbecile. She appears to have barred a few people, who continue to turn up and drink outside. I was having a fag and chatting to a couple of them (reasonable enough people, as it happens) and the manager told me off for talking to them, even though I'm a customer and can talk to whomever I want. Absolute cretin.
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A leering Sid what could be worse.
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Watch out for Sid leering at the young ladies.
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pleasant pub well kept ales
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Pleasant and polite staff when I went in for a meal on Friday, somewhat meagre portions though. But oh the clientelle! I know wetherspoons can attract the real dregs of the market but this was lower than low. I've never had a knife (even a dinner knife) suggested that it should be thrown at me in a pub before. It happened here. Avoid at all costs.
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Quick, friendly service (even though I visited on a Friday evening). Five guest beers to choose from. I had the Westerham Target, which was lovely!
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I generally prefer Wetherspoons that have been a pub in a previous life, as opposed to a retail conversion. But this one failed to inspire me. The many pillars give it a kind of cluttered look. But they do help to break up the open-plan interior a little. The floor is partly tiled and partly carpeted. TV screens were showing both live football and Sky Sports News, if you could see them around the pillars. The beer selection was reasonably good - Highgate Black Pig, Fullers London Pride, Deuchars IPA, Hogsback HBB, Greene King IPA & Abbot Ale, Ruddles Best and Weltons Moore Beer, with Woodfordes Sundew coming soon. Real cider was unavailable, except for bottles.
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Curiously-shaped building, with an unusual rounded end nearest the railway station, a small beer garden at the rear and a big cube sat on the central section (giving a slightly ship-like appearance from certain angles for those with a vivid imagination). Apparently the building was actually a pub before it became a Wetherspoons (if you see what I mean), and inside it has a relatively light interior. Ten handpumps with a reasonable range of real ale at �1.89, including Granny Wouldn't Like It from the Wolf Brewery and several other rarities.
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Came here last night, and was reasonably impressed. Looks like the landlord has got a grip, which seems to me the biggest variable with Wetherspoons pubs. Decent set of ales available, with several from microbreweries.
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A nice Wetherspoons pub in what is a decent location. I remember the prices being quite reasonable and the place has a good atmosphere. Standard stuff really, but one of the better pubs in the area.
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Average small London 'Spoons - OK real ale but looked like a marginal product here
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I ma not much of a weatherspoons fan but this is OK - and am a bit skint right now so the prices help. Nice Polish lager. Local info on walls is well done. Plus garden is pretty good really.
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This is a pretty standard Wetherspoons. Not my oub of choice but ok depending what you are after. Nice garden in the back which I tend to deviate towards when I am there. Food usual Wetherspoons, fine for a cheap night
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you think the pub is bad now you should have seen it in the early 90`s when it was called the breakspears
this is a good pub .good prices. the only problem is lack of bar staff thats why the tables are overflowing with plates & glasses..the staff problems are the same in every wetherspoons pub not just in the barge
anonymous - 28 Jan 2007 08:42 |
I go to this pub quite often because it is the half way point between me and a lot of my friends. The proper locals can be a bit of a pain in the backside, but other than that, it has a nice atmosphere and obviously the prices are a bonus! Nothing special, but certainly wouldn't frown upon it.
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I have no beef with Wetherspoon's pubs, and I actually love dodgy old geezer's pubs, but the Barge just always seems to be full of crazy old gippers (and not interesting ones either!)
I've been here twice now, and both times we left quite early to find somewhere - anywhere - else.
StuPC - 15 Mar 2006 09:47 |
Yes, the Barge tends to live up to it's monniker. It seems that's how the staff and management run the place - tables overflowing with dirty glasses, dirty tables with plates of half eaten food not taken away and locals treating their benefit cheque drink up like a funeral wake on a float to nowhere. Not many redeeming features about this pub except the beer garden out the french doors, which is okay in summer and the BR train station about 2 mins away that gives you an escape route.
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Very variable but seem incapable of dealing with the numbers of customers (where does everyone go when a train full of thirsty people pulls into Brockley station?)
Cheap beer and um... thats it really.
anonymous - 7 Sep 2005 16:00 |
Agree with the other comments...this place is a bit of a dump, dirty tables overflowing with dirty plates/glasses etc. Sometimes takes on the atmosphere of a wild west saloon, especially at the weekend. Otherwise cheap beer, but avoid the food - standard Wetherspoon microwaved fare (had a curry in there the other night and the popadoms were soggy in the middle!
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i have been using weatherspoons for many years now and on my return to the brockley i saw the brockley barge so while i was staying in the se4 area i used the pub while the drink and food choice is very good there are some slight problems such as if you want a steak sandwhich you are always told they are out of stock this i thought could be true untill i saw the chef come out to the bar and tell a member of staff that no indeed they don't bother ordering it in the same for the famous steak club they only have 2 choices on offer and i wonder if it is the same reason .
i have read some of your msg's and agree with so much the staff are hard working the day time can be very busy and on two visits to the barge there was just one member of staff a young frendly lad who was very helpfull but he was on his own all through the day yet i did see the manager walking around and then vanish for hours on end .
the tables are no cleaned as regular as they should be and the ash trays are always filthy and it seems when ever i go to the bar i get a dirty glass water staind as i was told by a duty manager or not we are intitled to a clean glass surely ?
the toilets are dirty there is always puddles of urine on the floor and one day there was no soap next there is no hand dryer and a gent who was in a weelchair had complained that the bin in the disabled toilet had not been emptyed for weeks or even months
i feel that the management team in this pub are no where near up to standerd's the bar man a mentioned seemed to know and work a lot more and harder that all the managers put together i myself have writing to jd weatherspoons to complain but i doubt very dearly that anything will be sorted and i think it is a shame as the managers let the place down and it could by far be a decent pub
my thinking of this place is that i would rather get on a train up to foresthill and use there weatherspoons as it is a big pub and has friendly staff and no hassle like the barge has and you get to see managers you know that any problem will be taken care off
is sad to see such a nice pub like the barge run so bad
anonymous - 12 May 2005 13:29 |
Great big Wetherspoons frequented by the walking wounded of Brockley. Knowing some of the nut-cases who drink here helps one relax but I wouldn't go here unless I was meeting them.
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Good, cheap beer .... when you can get served, although the staff are hard working and friendly.Ashtrays are not cleaned regularly and empty glasses are left on the tables. Atmosphere is okay, but, as previous posters have said, getting like The Break ten years ago. Don't lets lost this pub again!
Monstrous!
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it's getting tough to get served, went last friday and it was three deep at the bar and the locals have learnt the bar staffs' names and shout over you. now the maypole is boarded up all the mungos have switched. i'd go the duke of edinburgh if it wasn't such a walk :o(
oliver - 18 Oct 2004 17:43 |
a good effort from the staff who are obviously harrassed/victimised regularly by the lairy locals. lacks some atmosphere although as per W'spoons spec, a wide range of food and drink on offer.
May - 11 Jul 2004 18:36 |
this is technically my local but it is a faceless place (like a lot of wethers). as always the cheap drink is the attraction and the drink selection is good (wethers wine list is good value for money and good range too). after seeing who the chef is i no longer order food. they also seem to need an extra bar person per shift as it can take ages to get served and even when quiet the tables dirty/ashtrays overflowing/food plates left/betting sheets knee deep on floor etc. a new manager who can reign in some of the proles would be a good idea as it does seem to be getting wilder. functional drinking emporium.
al - 9 May 2004 11:10 |
Utter, utter crap, the pub as adam suggested is quickly reverting back to the breakspeares arms. I know that the manager is leaving soon and hopefully they will have a kick ass new govener who will sort out the staff and the clientelle. Not what you expect of a wetherspoons!
Andy - 25 Apr 2004 21:01 |
Typical Wetherspoons within easy walk of station. Manager dubbed 'Mein Host',in reference to his unfriendly attitude. Staff can regularly be seen playing and cleaning out the fruit machines in their breaks whilst still in uniform! Are you reading this Tim Martin? A mixed Brockley clientelle, but seems to be drifting back towards it's previous incarnation, the Breakspears Arms which was shut down by the police for 4 years.
adamafurness - 19 Apr 2004 16:30 |
CHEAP beer, beer garden, nice toilets, as everyone else says, very mixed clientelle. can get very busy, food is bog standard Weatherspoons microwaved stuff :(
did i mention CHEAP beer?
oliver penney - 5 Nov 2003 16:44 |
The regulars are a pain in the arse and expect to be served first otherwise it is quite an interesting mixture in the Brockley Barge
John formerly of Brockley - 22 Aug 2003 15:28 |
Good variety of beers, bitter by pump & lager by tap, at the reasonable price that a beer should be.
Totally diverse clientele as you would expect in Brockley. Arty fairies to drain diggers.
Good toilet facilities.
Brockley - very upwardly mobile
Phil B - 8 Jul 2003 13:24 |
Cheap food, cheap beer
No music, Lights too bright
Good manager
Dangerous when you've spent all day Sunday in there!
Spoe Jeck - 23 Apr 2003 12:52 |
Half-decent for a Wetherspoons, good quiz machine, cheap food and beer. Attracts old men.
Corin - 8 Oct 2002 12:31 |
