If, during lunch on Christmas Day, Aunty Faye continues to witter on about her bursitis to the extent that you start thinking about ramming a carrot into your eye socket, then we have an idea for you. Why not head to the pub! We’ve done some hunting and have tracked down the pubs (and there aren’t many) that are open on Christmas Day. And they are….
Please be aware that to the best of our knowledge these pubs are only open in the daytime. However, we’ve just received confirmation that one of our favourite pubs, theSteam Enginewill be open until midnight! It’s on the edges of Greater Kennington, in Lambeth North, but well work the walk to avoid having to get a carrot extracted from your eye.
Last weekend the Runoff visited celebrated Lambeth North pub The Three Stags for a long overdue visit to check out their Sunday roast. As part of our contract with management we work on only limited hours at weekends so we arrived at a venue not yet full of patrons, but when full is a good mix of locals, groups, and confused tourists who were led to believe that the pub is actually in Waterloo. The atmosphere is kind of punky with a huge range of music and, on our visit, loads of Halloween decorations and very spookily attired yet well informed bar staff. On that subject, the slightly morbid Chaplin corner is where Charlie last saw his dad alive.
My colleague had the free range pork belly which was a generous, fat and meaty balanced slab with loads of gravy. The roast hit all the main points well and was a very solid effort. All roasts come with a Yorkshire pudding, which gets a big tick. The roast potatoes were flavourful with a soft middle and some crisp edges, similar to how our bodies have evolved since the pandemic. The star veg was some cabbage, with just enough bite and surprinsingly very peppery.
We’ve said it before, but
taking pictures of food isn’t easy!
Your scribe had the chicken which was a mighty leg and thigh. The stuffing was a bit on the mean side, but was nice and flavourful. The honey glazed carrots and parsnips weren’t too strong in the honey notes and were so plentiful that we had to leave some on the plate, and cooked just this side of firm. And the roasts were topped with, um, watercress. Everything seemed very much home cooked, and that is what you want from a Sunday roast at a good price. And no to mention, they have a good selection of ales.
Although we were certainly carnivorous on this visit, The Stags takes pride in ‘ethical food with an emphasis on more veg and better meat’. And apparently they are South London’s most sustainable pub. In fact, the menu indicates that in order to protect the rainforest they no longer serve beef. If you’re a true Sunday roast purist, we suggest the Jolly Gardeners in Vauxhall or the very ‘cheffy’ 24 The Oval. But if you live in Lambeth North and want a well priced, dependable, sturdy and fun roast you could do a lot worse than The Stags. And if your tastes extend to listening to Lionel Ritchie while sitting under a picture of Sid Vicious you’ll fit right in.
Since our last visit to The Three Stags, they have converted their upstairs room into an open kitchen dining room with wood fired pizza oven:
The pizza was delicious – the best we’ve had in Kennington. They only do one size – twelve inches – and they make their own dough which is proved for two days “resulting in the most delicious light easy to digest base”. We had buffalo mozzarella and tomato which tasted wonderfully fresh although not cheap at £14.50:
There’s table service and the staff were particularly friendly and helpful. They’ve gone to a bit of trouble with the decor as well, with London-themed wallpaper by Timorous Beasties:
As befits a pub so close to the Imperial War Museum, they have war memorabilia around their stairs:
They serve food Monday to Friday 12- 4 and 6 -10, Saturday 12-5 and 6 – 10, Sunday 12-4 and 6-9 and they’re open till midnight except on Sundays (11pm). It’s a good summer pub thanks to all their outside seating, big windows upstairs and the adjacent Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park.
Other Kennington pubs boast Charlie Chaplin connections but The Three Stags trumps them all. It has a Chaplin’s Corner where Charlie’s errant father used to drink – Charlie wrote in his autobiography that this is where he saw his dad for the last time. If you can set its morbid history out of your mind then it’s worth securing the table in Chaplin’s Corner on the right in the photo below – it’s enclosed in dark wood and frosted glass for extra privacy.
We recently visited for the first time since a refit. It’s a good quality gastropub with table service and a selection of real ales, but what marks it out are its ethics. It was rated as a Three Star Sustainability Champion for the second year running this year, meaning it scored highly for sourcing local, seasonal food, focusing on animal welfare, and engaging with the community and the environment.
Plus they have 50,000 bees living on their roof, surrounded by pots of herbs such as lavender, thyme, basil, mint and sage, and flowers such as calendula, poppies, nasturtiums, cornflower and sedum. Honey can be purchased for a minimum of £20 per jar, all of which goes to fund a charitable project in Bali. Their queen bee is nicknamed Mae West and their drones are named Barack Obama.
The Three Stags is located at the junction of Kennington Road and Lambeth Road so it’s ideal for a drink or meal before or after visiting the Imperial War Museum, and good for a Sunday roast in winter.
