The Pavilion — Restaurant in London

🚇 Sydenham 🍺 £5.20 Cruzcampo

The Pavilion is located on busy Kirkdale in Sydenham, Southeast London. The nearest station is Sydenham which is literally right next door.

This pub was originally a Taylor Walker house known as the Railway Tavern and dates back to around 1891. In 2013, Star Pubs bought it and changed the name to The Pavilion, a nod to cricket.

This is a traditionally decorated two-bar pub — a rare find these days, as most have been knocked through into one. The Saloon Bar is at the front, laid out in an L-shape around the servery. Green walls, black-and-white prints, intimate banquette booths and a proper pub carpet give it a cosy feel. There were also a few screens showing the Lions rugby.

A passageway leads through to the Public Bar at the back, which has a pool table, dartboard, jukebox and a couple of fruities. The decor here is mushroom-coloured walls, a half-carpeted floor, traditional seating and a decent-sized servery.

The beer line-up was a straight-up, no-nonsense selection of familiar keg beers. I went for a Cruzcampo — my pint hit the spot and cost just over a fiver. After I’d ordered, someone was raving about the Guinness, which I’ll definitely try next time. There’s no food served here, but there are plenty of bar snacks if you’re peckish.

I arrived just after 12 pm on an overcast, humid Saturday lunchtime in July. There were about half a dozen punters in, and the atmosphere was welcoming and relaxed. I’d arranged to meet @jmarkdodds to discuss the future of London’s pubs — we had a great chat, which we carried on to another pub. The service here was brilliant; I had a brief chat with the landlady, who was witty and funny.

Visiting The Pavilion was a superb experience. I loved that the two separate bars had been maintained and that it had an old-school, proper pub feel. The beer was good, sensibly priced, and the team working here were great. If you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods, be sure to pay a visit — I loved it.

📅 26th July 2025

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Randomly found The Pavilion pub by chance late Saturday night for a late drink, we were at a private party in the function room of a neighbouring pub called The Greyhound which closed at 12am and we missed the last overground train back to Highbury (we were connecting there via London overground back to West Hampstead). We were walking past and my husband saw people outside smoking and asked if we could come in and the landlady Tina was at the door and welcomed us in so we got a drink for the road met a few lovely people had a little chat, Tina landlady there was a DJ (every Saturday night) met a lovely couple Kevin and Sherrie who helped us with a night bus 176 to Waterloo to connect to the night tube jubilee line back to West Hampstead. We had 3 pints fosters double vodka and coke £16. Very traditional pub no frills not many like this left in London sadly so we were glad to find it and when we are next in SE London we will visit The Pavilion...

TERRIBLE NIGHT, DO NOT ATTEND PUB. As a recent resident to the area I had read good reviews to the pavilion and was looking forward to going to this pub. I had planned to attend the pub after driving past the 'karaoke night' which had been written on a sign outside the pub. As a result of this sign I was looking forward to attending on this specific evening and had invited friends to join. I was really upset to be totally unwelcomed by the owner who I'm sure will deny the response to her reasoning behind this being that we were 'so northern'. This response was then further backed up by locals outside who proceeded to say 'we were not from round here'. Overall a really disappointing and upsetting experience to a recent long term move into the area. For future reference... If you do not want new residents to attend then do not leave signs outside the pub welcoming people to attend any said nights such as...