Well & Bucket
This Bethnal Green Road pub poured beer from 1818 until 1989, spent the next quarter century as a restaurant and then a wholesale shop, and reopened in 2013 with its broken Victorian tiles left on show.
Why go
Rather than retiling, the 2013 relaunch uncovered what was still on the walls, so the room reads as salvage: glazed Victorian tilework, a mosaic ceiling, and Londonist's "huge skull portraits that recapitulate the idea of back from the dead." Urban Pubs & Bars runs it now, with an oyster bar at the back and sliders as the long-running house plate. Time Out counted "about 18 on tap" in 2015 and picked out Omnipollo's Fatamorgana as "fruity, prickly, almost Hawaiian-tropical." Downstairs, 5cc runs a candle-lit cocktail bar with its own entrance to the evening.
Order this / avoid
- Order: oysters and sliders at the back bar, a bottle off the imported list, then move down to 5cc for the cocktail half of the night.
- Avoid: cask. CAMRA's current listing records none available here.
What locals & experts say
- Time Out (Nov 2015): four stars, calling the tilework
battleworn
andbrilliantly atmospheric,
with about eighteen taps anda little cocktail bar downstairs.
2 - Londonist:
It was in the pint-pouring business from 1818 until 1989, but for the past quarter-century, it's traded as a restaurant and, latterly, wholesale shop.
3 - CAMRA:
reopened by Barworks chain in early 2013 in a contemporary style but with much of the original tiling unveiled,
now under Urban Pubs & Bars.1 - Local rec: Ryan, per Jeff's list.
Good to know
- Timing: open from noon daily, to midnight midweek and 12.30am Friday and Saturday; kitchen to 10pm, 9pm on Sunday.
- Booking: walk-in for the pub. The 5cc basement takes its own bookings.
- Getting there: 143 Bethnal Green Road, 400 metres from Bethnal Green station and about ten minutes from Shoreditch High Street.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Rec via: Ryan.
- Note: Ryan rec
Verdict
could-visit — A pub that poured from 1818 to 1989, spent a quarter century as a restaurant and then a wholesale shop, and came back in 2013 with its smashed Victorian tilework left visible. The beer list is imported and deep, there is an oyster bar at the back, and 5cc runs a cocktail bar in the cellar. Good on the way to or from Shoreditch, without a single dish that justifies the trip on its own.