Part of our Best Pubs in London microsite. Is your local listed?
The Blue Stoops — named for the old Staffordshire brewery-pub where Samuel Allsopp is said to have invented IPA in a teapot — is a dazzling establishment. The bar gleams with blue-glazed tiles embossed with lions' heads and the Allsopp's raised hand logo. Cutlery is stashed away neatly in ceramic jugs, ready to have at the natty menu featuring charred guinea fowl with apricot harissa and dragoncello.
When it opened in October 2024, the pub hit the headlines for serving pints of the long-lost beloved/abhorred Double Diamond pale ale. But you don't have to drink it if you don't want to: there's also a good selection of real ales from Allsop's and other breweries (pulled from bespoke beer engines with high swan necks no less) and no lack of of good wines, spirits and what-have-you.
As a neighbour of the famous Churchill Arms, this place has some stiff competition. But you should make the effort to try the Blue Stoops for its posh-but-not-overbearing pub vibes, chirpy staff and a torrent of Double Diamond nostalgia — both on the walls, and on tap.
