The Ivy House — Restaurant in London

🚇 Nunhead 🍺 £6.00 Arnsberg Lager

The Ivy House is located in a quiet residential street, near Nunhead Cemetery in the Newlands area of Nunhead, Southeast London. The nearest station is Nunhead.

This former Truman's pub was originally built in 1865 and called The Newlands Tavern. The pub you see today was built in 1938 by Truman's principal architect, A.E. Sewell. Renamed The Stuart Arms in 1985, its name changed again in 1996 to The Ivy House, apparently in connection with the pub's Guv’nor at the time, Mum Ivy.

During the ‘Pub Rock’ era of the 1970s, Ian Dury, Elvis Costello, Joe Strummer all performed here. In 2015, the pub was used as the Double R Club in the Kray film ‘Legend’.

This pub became the UK's first community-owned pub and the first pub listed as an Asset of Community Value.

This large, multi-room pub impressively preserves its 1930s features, including dado height panelling, a glazed entrance, a moulded stone fireplace, multi-pane screens, and original bench seating. A notable detail is the brown and white chequered spittoon trough before the servery. The main bar connects to a Hall, off which lies the Jacobethan-style former "Refreshment Room." A courtyard beer garden is located at the rear.

The beer selection is diverse, offering four cask ales, locally brewed beers, and familiar favorites. I tried the Arnsberg Lager by @bexleybrewery ; my pint was great, price was average. The food option here is pizza, with nine choices available. A Margherita pizza costs £9.50, roast dinners return in September.

Arrived around 4 pm on a warm Saturday in April. The pub was quiet inside, with most customers enjoying the spring sunshine in the lively beer garden. Inside had a relaxed atmosphere. The service was excellent; a friendly staff member was kind enough to share interesting details about the pub.

The @ivyhousenunhead absolutely blew me away, what an outstanding pub this is. It just goes to show the power of community. A rich history, beautiful decor, friendly staff and locals and a top beer selection made for a marvellous London pub experience. Get it on your to visit list.

📅 12th April 2025

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Hadn't been to this pub for many years and was somewhat disappointed. Firstly, they've got rid of their car park and turned it into a "covered outside space", which I suppose is fine when the weather is good but I'm guessing it's hardly been used for the last six months. There is a little car park round the corner, but it's not free. The next thing I found disappointing is that there are only two tables which are normal height with normal chairs. The rest are high tables with tall stools that anyone with mobility issues (me!) or who is over a certain age (also me!) would struggle to get on to! Once settled at one of the normal sized tables, a young lady took our drinks order. Ten minutes later, they still hadn't arrived so we caught the eye of the barman and asked him where our drinks were. He was very apologetic and produced them within a minute. Apparently the young lady, rather than simply give the order to him verbally, had "put it in the system". Clearly, their system doesn't work. We ordered one starter, one main and a bowl of cheesy truffle chips. After a few minutes, the young lady came and asked us if we wanted it all to come at the same time and we said we did and we also mentioned we were a bit short of time as we were going to an event at Tonbridge School. Ten minutes later the starter arrived. After another five minutes there was no sign of the rest of our order so we asked the barman to check. He disappeared and another five minutes went by before he returned with the rest of our food. He told us that, unfortunately, it was a busy time and several orders had gone in at the same time. The pub was less than a quarter full and most of the others weren't actually eating! The food was average except for the chips which were good. The white wine was not cold enough. The service was polite but totally inefficient, there are obviously a few communication problems between the waiting staff, the bar staff and the kitchen staff. Probably won't...

We visited for the first time for a Mother's Day roast lunch, and were looking forward to supporting a co-op.

We arrived shortly after opening and they seem to be understaffed or still getting ready. We gave up waiting to be served and found our own reserved table. The staff were approachable and accommodated our request to be moved away from the door for the sake of our kids. We had no trouble ordering at the bar.

Inside is pretty interesting and you get a good sense of history. It was a little cold however. We wanted to look around more but didn't have the time (see later). One table was seated directly outside a toilet door and one of the bathrooms had a flickering light bad enough to induce an epileptic fit.

Food came out fairly quickly but that's where the problems started. The vegetables were barely cooked and a knife wouldn't go through the parsnip. Everything was cold to lukewarm. Kids chicken was OK and they ate that without complaint but understandably refused all the veg. Texture of the mushroom wellington was mushy and unpleasant. Everything felt rushed or poorly pre-prepared. We couldn't get the attention of staff as there weren't many around and we had to leave before the kids started losing it.

I would come back here for a pint but that's it. Hopefully our experience was an anomaly because the country needs...