Railway Tavern

Such a pity they are closed! I miss their two fat cats always sitting outside the chairs enjoying sun bathing.

Hailed quite correctly by a reviewer on another site that shall remain nameless *ahem* as a ‘backyard boozer,’ the Railway Tavern takes everything one both loves (character) and hates (chavs, memories of Jack the Ripper) about East London, and shoves it all into one tiny and rather disjunct pub space that’s sort of falling apart.
Reasons I give it four stars:
1) Cheap drinks. A pint (of Carlsberg) is £3, and spirits (ie a shot of Jameson) are £2.50 by themselves, though probably a bit more with a mixer.
2) Free three-​round pub quiz on Tuesday nights, sometime between 9:30 — 10:15 pm (they’re not big on punctuality here).
3) Free buffet of assorted fried foods (and the occasional celery stick) at said free pub quiz on Tuesday nights, a bit later than 9:30 — 10:15. I will say it again: FREE pub quiz with a FREE buffet.
4) The landlady/​owner is amazing and incredibly sweet (albeit a bit rough around the edges when you first meet her). She can (and does) go on for hours with her stories of what the East End used to be (pretty sure she grew up within a five minute walking radius of the pub she now owns).
5) There are two incredibly fat and grouchy pub cats, named Widget and Gizmo, who lay around wherever they want to and completely get away with it (usually, on your feet, just when you were planning on getting up to buy another drink, or very near the space heaters that have been brought out for the winter months. I keep having visions of burning fur and screeching, flying, angry kitty, but I don’t think you can talk fire safety to a cat).
6) Cheesy 90s soft pop plays in the background… all the time. I believe there was some Boyz II Men and KC & JoJo involved last time. Epic.
7) Dart board! Woo hoo.
Reasons I knocked off one star:
1) It’s located on kind of a random/​sketchy stretch of Globe Road, in between Bethnal Green and Stepney Green. It is also a bit nondescript/​unidentifiable from the outside. Were it not for the fact that I was looking out for it, I would have walked by the pub without taking a second glance… the sign’s not too conspicuous.
2)The entire half of the bar that is located near the toilet smells quite prominently of… toilet.
3) This place is, for the most part, ‘locals only,’ but they are extremely welcoming of newcomers. A majority of the locals, however, happen to be over the age of 60.
4) They don’t accept card here, probably due in part to the second half of #3.
So, come to the Railway Tavern and see its charm for yourself, especially if you don’t like to spend a lot of money on alcohol, enjoy answering various trivia questions with no real objective/​incentive, and hope to be a premature member of the geriatric community of East London, like me and my friends! I can think of no place I’d rather be on a Tuesday night.