IF FILM directors are looking for a good old-fashioned boozer for a set, they could do worse than Hardy’s Freehouse.
Indeed if you are looking for a nice place to while away an afternoon or evening with a pint, you could do worse too.
If interior designers use colours like vintage cream to describe a dirty white then Hardy’s would still be grotty-old-pub green.
The colour scheme may not be fresh but it makes you trust the place, it looks like a pub ought to look.
Inside, too, looks very much like a pub ought to but it is authentic and not a dodgy reconstruction.
There is a twist, though, as a section of the bar has been converted to the Green Pea coffee house and bistro for those not after a boozy afternoon.
The interior follows a similar design to the exterior with its greens and, though it is a little gloomy, oozes character with darts, plenty of occupied stools by the bar, dusty books, a forest-worth of wood, lots of signs and one of those glorious stain-glass pub windows.
There was even a lovely giant black dog padding around, which I wasn’t sure whether to embrace or take for a ride.
A lovely waitress – a proper East End barmaid – greeted me happily made my day when she handed me my pint of Doombar (£2.50) and a bundle of change and uttered the immortal words “cheers me dears”.
I couldn’t have been happier.
Supping my pint slowly, I enjoyed listening to Gold on the TV – you just don’t hear Bachman Turner Overdrive these days – and watching the locals, who were so perfect in their bar propping ways that I thought maybe the cameras were rolling and I was already in a film.
Hardy’s Freehouse, Trafalgar Road, Greenwich SE10 9UW
How it rated:
Decor **** (If it looks like a pub, it probably is a pub)
Drink **** (Plenty to choose from, but nothing too exotic)
Price ***** (Can’t fault £2.50 a pint)
Atmosphere ***** (A real pub)
Staff **** (Said “cheers me dears”, and called customers “babe”)
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