Nine Outstanding Beer Gardens to Visit in London This Summer

If there were a pub garden category at the Chelsea Flower Show, the Carpenters Arms in Chiswick would surely take gold. Not only is the walled courtyard exquisitely planted, it’s also accoutred with covetable vintage furniture that can only have come from some chic brocante in France. Sirloin with snails, crab tortellini and cured sea trout with beetroot aioli are recent highlights from the daily menu.

It’s a nice little set up they have in the garden at The Crossing, Barnes’ smartest newest dining pub. The sun-kissed terrace, strung with white lights and planted with olive trees, has its own bar with Moretti tap and an outdoor kitchen with rotisserie, where chicken, bavettes, even lobster and game birds cook over the coals. Michelin star chef Anthony Demetre of Wild Honey St James is consultant chef and it shows. Burrata with marinda tomatoes and anchoïade, crisp pigs’ head with ‘nduja mayo, and chocolate soup with pistachio ice cream and puffed rice are very much his style. Best enjoyed with Provençal rosé by the glass.

A pint of Neck Oil slips down nicely in the split-level back yard of the Clarence Tavern, the Stoke Newington pub from the Anchor and Hope crew. A bottle of chilled red would be nice too, with slow-cooked lamb, hummus and tabbouleh set in the centre of the table like a spread in a Sunday supplement. The modern British menu moves into Mediterranean mode in the summer, with herbed goats’ curd and tapenade on toast or crispy lacy farinata with Sicilian courgette caponata. A scoop of apple sorbet with a shot of loquat vodka sends you home smiling.

The Compton Arms off Upper Street in Islington is one of the pubs that inspired George Orwell’s famous essay The Moon Under Water about his ideal pub. Were he writing it today, he might mention that the tables in the garden are bookable and there’s banging food from chef Reece Moore of Belly like breadcrumbed pollock with anchovies and aioli and spicy veal larb. Cocktails and craft beers too.

Deep in leafy Wanstead rules The Duke, a neighbourhood boozer with a groovy 70s outdoor living room. You’ll want to take the macramé lampshades home with you. The kitchen has something for every day of the week. Saturday brunch is for Mimosas, wild mushroom eggs Benedict, and bottles of Chin Chin; Sundays, it’s roasts and craft beer. Weekdays, a ‘worker’s lunch’ of soup and a sandwich, will set you back just a tenner. Sister pub The Leytonstone Tavern is a great shout too.

You’ve every right to feel smug if you snag a table on the terrace at The Marksman. It’s such a cute spot perched over Hackney Road, and all the cuter when the sun’s shining and you’ve a mezcal and salt lemon sherbet in your hand. A Tamworth bacon chop or seafood platter will sort you out at Saturday brunch. Evenings are fun too when sundowners and curried lamb buns or a chicken and wild garlic pie come into play.

The best Guinness in London they reckon. See for yourself at Brendan the Navigator, the year-old Irish-accented freehouse on Highgate Hill. Outside is a beer garden like it ought to be: wooden picnic tables, outsize pub umbrellas, and the promise of a scotch egg. Pub grub here might be Cornish IPA-battered cod and chips, a mammoth chicken burger or Malaysian-style sweet potato and aubergine curry. Live music on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Five friends fantasised about the perfect pub during lockdown. The Jolly Gardeners in Vauxhall, launched June 2021, is the realisation of those dreams. Good food, good beer and a friendly welcome are a given; a secret garden is a bonus. While the roast beef and pneumatic yorkies has a devoted following, it’s the plant-based dishes that are the point of difference. ‘Chicken’ Kyiv, cauliflower hearts with truffled farro, and a special mention for the BBQ cauliflower wings.

Quadratto is the latest pop up to take over the stoves at Kentish Town’s The Gipsy Queen with a menu of Detroit-style pizza and Italian small plates such as gnocchi fritti, bruschetta and crisp Roman-style flatbreads. Book your table outside if the weather’s playing nice; the secret garden with its colourful lights and colourful walls is always hopping. Sister pub the Victoria Stakes in Muswell Hill has a great space out back too.