Morning:
6°c
Critic rating
Balham Bowls Club says it like it is
7 Sep 2010
Well, you can't fault this one on originality. The name says it all: once the Clubhouse for the local bowls club, when the club closed down, the property was bought up and reopened as a bar.
The fixtures and fittings were pretty much left in situ, with minor adjustments in keeping with the building's past: scorecards still adorn the walls and you expect a prize giving for the year's champion bowler to take place any minute.
It's quite a setting - we can think of few other London pubs with a full size snooker table in them - and probably a few fashion shoots will book the space as time goes by, but as a place to drink in, it's an odd one. When we popped by the place seemed rather quiet (particularly in comparison to the nearby bars) but perhaps this was a good thing given the bar describes itself as being "a working men's club for men and women into hedge funds and rolling news channels".
The drink is decent enough and the food - in keeping with the surroundings - was along the lines of sausage rolls and pasties. However, we just haven't warmed to this one; there's just something too knowing at work, which resulted in us just not enjoying it as much we thought we should. A one off, we'll give it that.
NEAREST STATION: Balham station
FEATURES: outdoor seating
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (3)
Stumbled on this while doing a Balham websearch.
I'm a regular in many Balham pubs and, as SHR and dugj said, this is a perfunctory, empty review that goes to no effort at all to find out anything about the place. "It's a pub. It serves beer. No one was there. Nice decor"
Some current Bowls Club highlights include...
Sizeable beer garden; Balham Ukulele Society (fortnightly Sundays); stitch n bitch; record club; regular music nights; poetry evenings; *two* full size snooker tables; decent Saturday breakfasts; excellent bar snacks (including sausage rolls); friendly staff; decent beer (Ubu); alcohol free beer; lots of space.
It's expanding and improving all the time as well, but you wouldn't know becuase you didn't ask.
- Matt, Balham, 20/01/2011 12:28
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this is such an inaccurate review! Usually I wouldn't bother to write, but the BBC is delightfully quirky, good drinks, superb food (shames many "gastro" pubs), and attracts a huge mix of people. To top it all, staff are invariably friendly. One of the best bars in London.
- SHR, Balham, 09/09/2010 13:36
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Really unfair review. The BBC is a proper locals bar - enjoyed by all those people who've been pushed out of Clapham/Balham by interlopers from Croydon, backpackers from Oz and reviewers from the Standard.
By all means pass on by, and leave it to those of us who live nearby to enjoy one of the few locals we have left.
- dugj, clapham, 08/09/2010 10:49
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