London Pubs Group

Campaign for Real Ale

Campaign for Real Ale

Crayford Arms

37 Crayford High Street
Crayford
DA1 4HH

The Crayford Arms is not a listed building, but is on CAMRA's National Inventory as a One Star pub with an interior of Special National Historic Interest, and the description is as follows: "This pub has three separate but inter-linked rooms still containing fittings from 1936, when the extension to the rear also created the third room at the back. The main entrance leads to a lobby with an intact former bottle and jug bar that still has its counter and hatch, but of course is no longer in use as such. The left-hand door leads to the public bar but its better quality fittings such as the fielded panelling on the bar counter front and fielded panelling to two-thirds height on the walls suggests that this was originally the saloon bar. The bar back comprises panels with illuminated signing for both brewery and pub name in a style reminiscent of the 1950s and 1960s , although from much later, having replaced earlier ownership details when taken over by Shepherd Neame. An impressive brass plate above the bar top acts as a bank of sixteen light switches individually labelled in a named sequence.

The door to the right leads to the saloon bar, with its cheaper fittings than the room on the left, such as the plain counter front and matchboard panelling on the lower section of the walls, tells us that this was probably the public bar. A somewhat surprisingly attractive feature here is a newer 'chandelier' made from old brown beer bottles. The two rooms are connected at the rear via a third room which has a another fireplace with herringbone brick infill, and a mixture of modern and aged panelling, the former predominating at full height."

The WhatPub link is here: WhatPub/Crayford Arms

The Pub Heritage Group link is here: PHG/Crayford Arms

The Crayford Arms has yet to feature on a LPG crawl.