‘I run London’s finest pub – my easy rule for punters is vital to our success’

The operator of a pub dubbed the ‘best in London’ by consultants has defined precisely what makes a terrific local – however warned new landlords off the trade.

Sitting down by the fireplace within the entrance room of the Eagle Ale House in southwest London, David Law is as relaxed may be. The Daily Star ended up right here after it requested Greg Mulholland of Campaign for Pubs fame, the place he believed we might discover the capital’s finest boozer.

The partitions of the pub are a deep crimson, the furnishings picket with the occasional mushy overlaying. A big foremost bar room opens out as you come by way of the door, whereas to its proper cosy tables weave out and in of partitions forming little snugs in entrance of the two-sided bar.

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History oozes from the partitions, virtually actually. Bottles of wine, presumably defeated in-house, adorn the again wall with notes written on them. Bookcases and black and white photos, and a few in color, fill the remaining partitions – every tells a narrative concerning the pub and its historical past.

David’s philosophy is obvious.

“Service, civility, good quality drinks at a reasonable price,” he defined. Sounds easy doesn’t it? David took the Eagle over in 1996, turning it round from a pub on the brink to the jewel within the southwest of the capital’s crown.

He discovered what makes a pub tick from an early age. As a lad, David visited a household pal who ran a pub in West Croydon and requested them why theirs was a lot busier than all of the others within the space.

He says he was informed: “Basically if you’ve got young people, you’ve got to have old people. Because if all the old people die off you’re left with just the young people and then they all move away. Your bricklayer’s got to be able to talk to your barrister, there’s got to be a nice level environment for everyone – no favouritism, treat everyone the same. If you’ve got the police coming you’ve got to have your crooks.”

David’s pub, which doesn’t serve any meals other than crisps and nuts, is a dying breed. “It shouldn’t be what it is, in the sense that we’re the last man standing here. We’re the last true, proper, pub in the area – it shouldn’t be like that, it should be ubiquitous and we are losing that unique selling point we’ve always had, our pubs are a cultural difference to the rest of the world.”

“It’s how you behave, it’s how you greet people – and serve them the right drinks.” He defined the significance of promoting drinks folks need – he slammed bars that refused to serve sure drinks as a result of landlords felt it attracted the “wrong sorts” of individuals.

He’s so assured of his methodology, in reality, that he defined “the other night I took the dog for a walk” and went previous a bar owned by a preferred, however “eye wateringly expensive” pub chain.

“They had about eight people in on a Friday night, and then I came back here and it was packed,” he stated, the fireplace flickering in settlement behind him.

David stated in no unsure phrases that he liked what he does, and that actually got here throughout, delight and fervour implicit in all the things he stated – however hardly endorsed it as a profession transfer. for newbies proper now.

“We’ve had the worst pandemic in living memory, cost of living crisis and everything else,” he defined. “The fallout from that has been horrendous. We know people in pubs from across the country that haven’t got back to pre-covid figures yet.”

David defined how, regardless of this, the businesses that personal pub portfolios throughout the nation had continued to, typically talking, put the hire up.

“I don’t understand how, after the pandemic, every pub company sought an increase in rent after the pandemic. No one in their right mind thinks they can attain growth every year.”

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