The Pembury Tavern London E8

One of the principal tenets of the Pembury Tavern’s regeneration, its architect tells me, was that a Victorian time traveller would still have a recognisable pub experience out of it.

Let’s put this to the test. Your 1890s ale-drinker, having blithely ridden his penny-farthing through a wormhole, would find the Pembury Tavern in the same place – by a busy junction in Hackney – as he left it. Standing outside, he wouldn’t be spooked by the distressing, alien sound of a “disc jockey” at work; peering through the big windows, he’d see familiar dark panelling and exposed floorboards, and he’d note that the patrons, by and large, drink the same stuff he did.

So far, so similar. Depending on the day, he’d either be enticed by the Sunday roasts or intrigued by the weeknight pizzas, a dish we can assume to appeal to human taste buds throughout history. And this being Hackney, he’d smugly observe that his wife was quite wrong: moustaches NEVER went out of fashion.

The renovation, which took place last year, was carried out by the Five Points Brewing Company, whose co-founder, Ed Mason, was the man I’d spoken to. The company’s brewery is across the road, and its beer, as you’d expect, occupies permanent taps at the bar: a pilsner, an India pale ale, and a very pale India pale ale, each for a round fiver.

A couple of friends and I sank a few of these on a Thursday evening. Since it’s not in the city centre, the Pembury Tavern seems not to become egregiously full from 6pm on a weeknight, which meant that we were able to claim one of the coveted and sunlit outside tables. A long time has passed since the pub’s Victorian origins, but, as our time traveller will agree, much of the world of beer-drinking has stayed the same. That constancy is a small comfort, but a comfort nevertheless, as I sit in the cocooning fug of a gentle Friday morning hangover. I’m far from the first, and I won’t be the last.

Tom Ough

90 Amhurst Rd, London E8 1JH; 0208 986 8597; pemburytavern.co.uk