The Brown Derby, Kennington, London

Pub #2032:

My legs were flagging, I was cold and wet, and I didn’t think there were anymore new-to-this-list pubs on the route to Kennington Station where I would change into my dry kit and head home.  But, just before Oval Station the Brown Derby presented itself.

 

 

This was one of those rare bars that sticks a lot of stupid shit together in a misguided attempt at hipness and, yet, manages to pull it off.  I don’t know how it happens, but some places just do.  Here’s some of the stupid shit: above the right half of the bar there is a rocker arm driving a bank of large, leaf-shaped fans to-and-fro.  The articulated arm is driven by a rotary motor so that the rail on which the fans are hinged doesn’t just thrust but also rises and lowers slightly with each cycle.  Two puffer fish are hung from the rail and, likewise, float with this wavelike motion.  Mesmerizing.

 

 

The jukebox is likewise fabulous, but out-of-order.  I would have offered to repair this for them, but it seemed an involved conversation about my qualifications would ensue and I let go of the notion.  They had really good taste in the music they were playing on the non-jukebox system, anyway…jazz and reggae interspersed with a couple of seasonal things.

Even the retro (but politically incorrect) wallpaper in the toilet somehow “works.”

And, the beer is good.