The Artful Dodger

The Artful Dodger
Proper pub lovely staff friendly locals
Magnificent beer at great prices

If you want a proper dive bar, why not Artful Dodger… good for those who like to go with the flow and experiece a bit of the local color. Cheers.

This is a proper east end bar that looks like it hasn’t changed in about 40 years. It caters for locals and doesn’t care to impress any stranger that happens to venture inside their frosted glass windows. In the USA this would definitely fit the category of ‘dive bar’
I wouldn’t take someone here on a date but if you after a drink with a mate in a proper old London boozer… then this is a good experience.

A lot of people may find this pub looks familiar, because they have seen it from the passing DLR. Few will have visited though, despite it’s proximity to a few busier roads I don’t think a lot of people end up at this end of this street.
Which is probably why this pub has a local’s feel to itbut it’s one of the friendly locals. There was TV news on during my visit and the regulars were grumbling about the latest scandal. There were some bookshelves around too, so if you’re bored you can have a quiet read.
They have a good selection of drinks in general but unfortunately both ales were off when I visited.
I like the nameI suppose with Mr Pickwick’s and the Dickens Inn not a million miles away there is a potential themed crawl in there somewhere.

I think I’ll get the positives out of the way first on this one. It’s cheap. That’s it, nothing else.
I honestly would not go back to this place if you paid me. It’s on my way to work so one day on the way home I thought I’d pop in and cheack it out, big mistake. It’s a local pub in the very strictest sense, from the moment of my entry I was made to feel painfully aware of my status as a stranger. It’s the sort of place where everyone knows everyone and that doesn’t include you.
On top of that the interior is drab and depressing, they do have darts and Sky TV but I couldn’t imagine a more sombre atmosphere to enjoy either activity. The drinks are pretty piss poor as well but as I already mentioned they are pretty cheap.
It’s quite a difficult place to find if you don’t know it already and I implore each of you not to go looking for it.