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Pub Quiz! Which pub is this?"[this pub] doesn’t operate a ‘no football colours’ policy, so the pub can, and does, attract large groups of middle-aged lager louts, thugs, away supporters here to see their team play Brighton. It’s best avoid the pub in these instances, unless you fancy squaring up to an ugly, drunken, fat, wife-battering, knobhead, with its one braincell numbed by shandy! We speak from experience." ReviewThe Greenwich Union is the only pub of Meantime, the Greenwich microbrewery based in Charlton. The brewery is renowned for specialities such as its chocolate beer and range of classic European beers sold in Sainsbury's. From the outside, The Greenwich Union resembles a café on a village green in a quant village somewhere, selling high-teas and cream cakes, yet it's a long, narrow pub with fatigued wooden tables, chairs and benches, sumptuous sofas, yellow/orange pastel walls and a stone floor. Previously the Fox & Hounds pub, The Greenwich Union has a conservatory and large garden at the rear that can get excessively busy in the summer. Entertainment includes a TV in the conservatory, above the luxurious seating, yet the main entertainment must be the beer itself. If you're unsure about any of the beers, ask for a taster, which the staff will be only too happy to provide. The bar itself is ultra-modern with chrome fittings and Art Deco-style mirrors, onto which the brewery's Meantime logo is etched. What is thoroughly traditional, however, is the huge bell behind the bar to warn the boozers it's time to leave. The brewery's choice of Union as a pub name is very clever, as it could have any of three meanings. The Greenwich Union, formed under the Poor Law Amendment Act by the Deptford, Greenwich and Woolwich Parishes, ran a workhouse on nearby Maidenstone Hill until 1840; union is the 'fusion of lager and dark beer made from two-row barley malt and Cascade hops'; presumably, members of the University of Greenwich Students' Union believe this is their pub! The walls in The Greenwich Union are decorated with hops and modern paintings, both of which are for sale, the former in liquid form. One of the paintings appears to be a slice of the colour spectrum - hardly innovative! One feature, which seems totally out-of-place, is the wooden radiator coverings that are usually seen in a museum, country-house or doctor's surgery. At the front of the pub is a large iron stove, the heat of which appears to have killed all the plants standing in the large urn in the corner, as they have no leaves!     Review by mr_psm Nearby:Pubs:
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User Comments:
The Union has a very friendly, relaxed ambience, offers a small but select food menu and is regarded as one of the best pubs in Greenwich, aided by the fact it is off the beaten tourist track. However, its main selling point is its range of non-pasteurised beers which are second to none and have the added bonus of not giving you a hangover. In the summertime, the strawberry beer is particularly recommended. The raspberry beer was also very good but this is now no longer sold on tap and can be a trifle lively in its bottled-form. If you like the Union, you may also like to try Zero Degrees, another microbrewery but with a more hardcore modern decor, situated in Blackheath.