The Crooked Billet, Walthamstow

That church, Christ the King, has always been there, it got 'moved' back 200ft and rebuilt anew when the road was redeveloped in the late eighties. Odd that this pub is listed, since it's demolishment predates the Internet by some decades! It was pulled down in the first restructuring of the road as a round-about from an off-set cross roads sometime after the late sixties I believe, and its site would have been somewhere in the middle of what is now the island.

So in other words, probably the best pub in Walthamstow as there's never any trouble! lol

11 Nov 2007 14:58

The Bell, Leytonstone

I went here with an open mind, but with the expectation of this being I decent pub going by the reviews. When I first arrived I thought it was a reasonable east end pub, much in fitting with some of the better ones in the borough and surrounding areas. Beer was alright, prices at the upper end of ok and the service from the lady behind the bar was good. However, sadly the evening went down hill from there, when I went to get the next round, the Landlord served me, he didn't respond well to a little small talk and when offered a debit card for payment he rebuked it with what can almost be described as horror! When questioned on why he didn't take cards we were given a closed answer of "Just don't", it took two of us politely asking progressively more simplified questions filled with increasingly more open ended statements which included possible answers for him to just nod at; honestly it was like pulling teeth from this guy! Finally got to the bottom of it - he didn't trust them as he had customers in the past using knocked of ones (Even this is a poor answer, as any businessman familiar with merchant services, knows that they can claim these monies back from the banks). So as this is going on my friends and I are pooling are small change, at which point his only moment of levity came from our possible misfortune of us not having bus fare to get home! (not an issue thankfully as we pointed out we had other cards with oysters on them) Truly childish behavior, and not the level of professionalism you would expect from someone who has chosen a career in the hospitality trade (different story to have a laugh and joke with regulars, or even if he had been in good humour up to that point with us as new guests). I don't like bashing people, but this guy got my goat, any one can have a bad day, but it appears this is his normal state, anyway, so after sitting back down and having a little vent about this guy, the mood moved back to our discussions, a while later I when to the Gents, only to be met with the most foul cess pit of a convenience, a quick wade past the urinal lends you to the dilapidated throne with it's broken seat and plastic cistern pock marked with cigarette burns, and toilet paper decorating the floor. I've seen some dire dunnies in my time, but this one gets the medal.

All in all, a disgrace. There are a few good pubs in the borough, not many unfortunately but those are the ones that prove it is possible to run a good pub as freeholder or even a leaseholder and compete with the chain pubs, if not on price, at least service and if they are smart enough, capture a niche. The Bell in Leytonstone joins it's name sake in Walthamstow at the very bottom of the league, I most definitely won't visit this pub again and hope that the lose in revenue from others like me who vote with their feet, is enough to stir this pub out of it mire.

11 Nov 2007 14:28