Quirky venue for a great evening out

Address: 96 Church Road, Crystal Palace SE19 2EZ

Telephone: 020 8771 9389

Website: www.thewhitehartse 19.co.uk

Manager: David Stevens

Food: Served all day (midday to 10pm), sport occasionally shown

Is there a story behind the pub’s name?

There’s loads of strange stories about the pub and its history. I don’t know why we’re called The White Hart though, but it used to be an O’Neill’s pub. There’s a big white hart painted on the outside of the building.

How much is your cheapest pint and glass of wine.

You can get a pint of lager for £3.50 and a small glass of white wine costs £2.95.

There are discounts sometimes as well.

What sort of special evenings do you have at your boozer?

We run a quiz night once a week which is always fun.

There’s also a cheap wine night with really good discounts.

Recently we started a knitting night called Stitch and Bitch and, weirdly, it’s gained a really big following.

It turns out that knitting is still popular!

Who is your most loyal regular?

We’ve got quite a few regulars at the pub here, who we’ve got to know. There isn’t anyone who comes in every single day, but there’s always some lively characters around.

Are there any pub legends?

The cellar of our pub is haunted and has become quite renowned for giving people weird vibes. There’s a big following of people interested in the cellar and there’s all kinds of ghost stories about it. Quite often we have people coming along who ask to go down there and have a look around so that they can experience the atmosphere.

If you could change one thing

Our pub has always been black with a big white hart painted on the side which stands out really well. But a few days ago the walls got painted green and I’m regretting it now. I’d like to paint it back to black like it was before.

And who rings the bell for last orders?

We’re quite unusual in the White Hart because we don’t actually have a bell at all. At the end of the evening whoever is working that night just flickers the lights dimmer instead.