The Charles Dickens

Dusty, barren establishment with no service at all. Not one person took our order, killer beer selection though
Place is closed.

So, when a friend of mine visited from Germany, I wanted to find a traditional pub experience for tea before we hit up the Globe.
I combed through Unilocal suggestions in the area and settled on this one, my decision helped along by the fact that my friend is a bit of a Dickens fan and I figured the name of the pub would please her.
The décor and atmosphere are very much exactly what I was hoping for, the perfect traditional pub including a somewhat charming run down sort of look. (Minus points for the toilets being somewhat run down as well though, yikes)
The beer selection is fantastic and I’m sure my friend would have liked to stay and sample them all, she’s a bit of a beer afficionado.
The food was perfectly cooked traditional fare, she had the fish and chips, I enjoyed a plate of liver and onions in a creamy sauce that tasted just like pub food should taste.
Now, this isn’t fine dining, but it’s solid traditional food, the perfect comfort food and the portions are quite large as well.
We left very pleased with the experience, the staff were friendly, the food was tasty, the atmosphere was traditional, it was everything we had hoped for. The pub is a bit out of the way in a back alley as well, so it’s not overrun like most places in the area. Big thumbs up!

A traditional pub hidden away in the Southwark/​Borough area. We found it whilst looking for some food before seeing a play at Southwark Playhouse.
It was really quiet, especially considering it was a Saturday evening but that was ok for what we wanted. It has the potential to be great with a little TLC for the interior and better quality food.
We found a small table in a corner which was next to a shelf with lots of books. Of course they were Charles Dickens books which was a nice touch although there was also a Gok Wan, How to Look Good Naked book… a little out of place!
My boyfriend was impressed with the beers on tap and I had a lime soda (one of the downsides of marathon training!). For food, they had a pretty good menu with a variety of sandwiches, light bites and good old English pub grub. We were impressed with the reasonable prices too.
I ordered a spicy lamb burger and my boyfriend ordered fish and chips. We were warned about a short delay whilst the chef had popped to Sainsbury’s for some ingredients but the wait wasn’t too long. I enjoyed my burger and chips. It had a good level of spice and the mint yoghurt sauce on it went really well. The salad wasn’t at it’s best but it was ok to eat. Certainly not gourmet food out anything to shout about but good for the price. My boyfriend’s fish though was terrible. It was burnt, the batter was more like what you’d find on cheap fish fingers and the fish was really dry. It seemed quite processed and he didn’t enjoy it at all unfortunately.
It’s probably a great place to go in a large group (there are some big tables and benches) for drinks and on a different day maybe the food would be better. My burger was alright so perhaps just avoid the fish.

Last weekend I tried the Lasagna and my friend had the Dickens burger. We were both very happy with our order since the food was so delicious. The lasagna was hot and actually came very fast to my table. The service was very fast and friendly the staff was polite and chatty. So thank you!

We came here for trivia/​quiz night on Wednesday but the bar was also playing an important football game (read: soccer) and ppl were yelling and shouting to the tvs while we tried to listen to the questions. The questions were super fun and our team came in fourth, but the entire experience was exhausting. I wish they would just separate out the events like not play a big game on tv or move the quiz night to another night.
Food-​wise, i thought the selections and prices were decent. I shared an appetizer platter with a coworker and the deep fried items for less than 8 quid was great. The chicken burger didnt look too good though. I don’t think I would go there for dinner or lunch.
Overall, fun pub with a nice patio in the back.

This review is about the weekly Wednesday night pub quiz.
Four friends and I attended the pub quiz last night and I really wish the quizmaster would have issued a warning about the level of difficulty. This quiz is targeted at voracious readers. Most of the questions pertained to current events, literature, and history. Sure I keep up with the news, but apparently not at the level necessary to perform well in this quiz. The only question I answered with certitude was about The Big Bang Theory haha! I highly recommend this pub quiz for lay geniuses and their savant friends, or anyone who was studious in school. I wish there would have been more questions about pop culture, moveis, and music for the rest of us average joes. Nonetheless, my team still made the top 10 teams, so we far exceeded our expectations :)

Love this place, 5 mins from my office so a great place to pop to at lunchtime and get served nice and quick. They do a great sausage sandwich too if you like that sort of thing :-). Prices are very reasonable and nice traditional atmosphere, worth dropping in.

good little backstreet boozer. good selection of ales, different every week. Plus san miguel an amstel for lager bods and strongbow an some strong cider that i cant recall. They also cook a mean burger. deffo worth a visit if you wandering the streets of southwark.

A very nice traditional little local boozer, with friendly staff and a friendly landlord. The ground floor is divided into two areas — a bar at the front, with a seating area next to the open-​plan kitchen at the back.
On our visit they had a truly excellent selection of real ales, all very well kept. They do good value food as well.
Worth a visit.

The Charles Dickens is a cosy, traditional local pub with great real ales in that slightly odd no-man’s land half way between Waterloo and London Bridge stations. It’s only a five minute walk from Southwark underground station, and is pleasantly down-​to-​earth compared with many of the glitzier places closer to Waterloo or Borough.
The exterior is plain and unassuming, with a traditional interior with lots of wood, decorated with prints of pencil line drawings depicting various characters from Dickens’ novels. (Dickens lived around the corner around 1824 when, at the age of 12, his father was in the debtors’ prison). There are also two Sky TV screens (showing the news when I went).
The clientele are a mixture of locals, workers (lunchtimes and after work, but not too many ‘suits’) and the odd celebrity Andrew Lloyd Webber was enjoying an evening there on my last visit (not that I’m swayed by such things). I found the staff to be helpful and friendly.
The main reason for a visit in my view is the range of real ales they have half a dozen hand-​pumps, and on our visit had an excellent range of winter ales, including Harvey’s Christmas Ale (8.1% ABV!), Okell’s St Nick (4.5%), and Rudolph’s Ruin (4.6%), as well as Adnams Bitter (4.5% ABV), the hard-​to-​find Harvey’s Sussex Dark Mild (3.0%) and Twickenham Original Ale (4.2%). It was like a little beer festival.
They have a food menu of standard pub fare: nothing exciting, but for London the prices are good value for money, and both meat and veg are bought in fresh form the local markets. Starters range from £2.50 to £6, mains from £5.95 to £7.95 for a sirloin steak, and desserts from £1.50 to £2. There’s a roast on Sundays. We had a group meal there and both the grub and the service were fine. Actually, the beer’s good value too for Central London.
Worth searching out.

Charming, lively. An impressively unaltered late-​victorian exterior gives way to a warm and convivial establishment. Very inviting, apart from one annoying fellow marching up and down bellowing into a mobile phone. Excellent food. Not open weekends