Part of our Best Pubs in London microsite. See if we've included your local.
The White Bear stretches so far back from the road that you might want to bring a bicycle just to get from the bar to the beer garden. It's epic. And very handsomely presented, too.
Not so long ago, this was a somewhat tumbledown pub, with an unspoken partition between the regulars and those visiting the fringe theatre upstairs. Then, Young's took over and gave the place one hell of a scrubbing up.
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They've done a good job. The place is a quarter of a millennium old, and seems to inhabit all those centuries at once. Touches of Victoriana and Georgian elegance intermingle with glazed tiles and exposed brickwork. Oddball furnishings are everywhere, including a macabre merry-go-round horse and a contrarian black bear, seen here cavorting with a well known historian and occasional TV presenter.
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We didn't dine, but former Londonista and local resident Ben Norum reckons the place does 'top pub grub, but not elevated to gastro fare'. Which is a good thing. Draught ales are mostly from Young's, though there are other options on keg and in bottles.
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All in all, the best thing on Kennington Park Road that isn't Kennington Park.
Quiz night is Wednesday. On Twitter as @SE11WhiteBear, on Facebook. On Instagram.
Last visited April 2018.