The Dulwich Woodhouse, Sydenham

It has been a while since I last posted on the Dulwich Woodhouse, and really nothing much has changed the opinion of it I supplied in December 2008. The other posts about this pub are pretty spot on.

However, I will give it a couple of boosters.

Firstly, if you miss a decent pub quiz then come along to the Woodhouse every Wednesday because a really well attended and popular quiz gets hosted here once a week. I love it.

Secondly, the staff are always a pretty decent bunch. Other than that not much new to add, other than that it is really expensive to drink and eat here (within the context of south London rather than the West End). My third boost is that the Youngs beer and their guest beers are still cheap and are well kept. Heh, i still keep coming....

11 Apr 2010 21:36

The Dulwich Woodhouse, Sydenham

Could not agree more with the recent comments made by posters about the newly refurbished Dulwich Woodhouse. My views are not from an embittered local (though I am local) or a pub traditionalist but stem instead from sheer bewilderment.....

Firstly, the old pub did need some work doing on it so there is nothing wrong with change per se. However, this refurbishment is a Bridge Too Far. It has changed the whole emphasis of the pub by marginalising the drinking function in favour of more formal dining. The garden, one of the better parts of the old Woodhouse, has been crammed so full of tables I am really interested to see how it works as a space during the summer. The old raised wooden decking area, which had a really nice 'colonial' feel about it (I used to love sitting there during the summer) has been ripped out and replaced with a black astro turfed area with furniture to match, giving it a feel of a chintzy 'chill out' zone of a Ibiza nightclub during the 1990s.

One of the recent posts (Bobbo) suggested that it had the new bar area had the feel of a hotel lobby. He is quite right and it is precisely the view many of us arrived at after we had visited the 'new' DW for the first time. Despite Young's spending all this money they have not got the simple things right, like shifting the kitchen doors to face the new restaurant rather than having staff entering and exiting through the new bar area. Ditto with the coffee making area. Surely this is better placed in their spacious new dining area rather than plonked next to drinker�s tables?....

Yet if this pub was really supposed to be all about food then the new DW should have provided a more progressive menu and changed the chef. Both are exactly the same as before. Very odd. I never came to here for the food and neither did many others I know.

Youngs should have taken a leaf out of The Plough on Lordship Lane in east Dulwich. This has been recently renovated - post-smoking ban - yet has retained all its character and importantly got it�s drinking versus food balance just right. The staff are also terrific. It is also very child friendly (as long as they are not present after 7), so makes money during the day from lunches for the areas 'nappy valley' mothers instead of having a few old men nursing half pints for hours on end.

Like Griffith, I expect to see the Woodhouse on Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares in a few years because the pub will have a) alienated all the 'locals' (concur with Rich66 though, I won't miss some of them, it was like a Daily Mail editorial some nights) and b) be empty of diners because the food is overpriced and just not good enough. Which is a shame; because there was a real opportunity here to make a great venue but someone at Youngs gave an architect/interior designer team too many crayons.

Having said that the gents toilets are among the best I have been too in a long time, but that�s not really a reason for visiting a pub..... Maybe I will get used to it.

1 Dec 2008 12:26