Christmas and New Year’s Opening Hours

My apologies for the long delay in posting, thanks so much to Jordana from Camberwell Arts for stepping in a few times. Most of the news gets spread on Facebook and Twitter these days, but I still think there’s a role for this blog, and will try out a few new ideas in the New Year.

But to finish 2016 I want to do a quick round-up of the Christmas and New Year’s opening hours for our pubs, cafes and restaurants. The neighbourhood can get quite empty over the holidays as our large student population dissipates, but for those of us who stay I thought this might be useful.

This post will be updated until it’s too late, so if there’s somewhere I’ve missed out please feel free to leave a comment, or DM me on Twitter.

Pubs

If you fancy a drink over Christmas, the Bear is not the place for you; they’ll close from the 24th to the 29th, reopening at 4pm on Friday 30th.

A good bet is the Tiger, which will close on Christmas Day only, with normal hours the rest of the week except for a 3.30am close on NYE (well, NYD, but you get what I mean). The Sun will also close on Christmas Day only, although Boxing and New Year’s Days will see reduced hours (12pm to 9pm). If you want to eat there on NYE, it’s set menu only, 6pm to 11pm.

Both Stormbird and the Hermit’s Cave will close Christmas, Boxing and New Year’s Days. (I thought the Hermit’s usually opened during lunchtime on Christmas Day; perhaps I’m mistaken, or perhaps this is new.)

The Crooked Well will close on Christmas and Boxing Days only, although there’ll be no dinner service on New Year’s Day.

The Camberwell Arms will be closed from the 24th, then reopen from the 29th to the 31st for dinner only, then close again until the 7th of January.

The Phoenix will close at 9pm on Christmas Eve, open for prebooked meals only on Christmas Day, open from 12pm to 9pm on Boxing Day.

If you really fancy a drink on Christmas Day, the Fox on the Hill is open from 11am to 3pm (no food). 8am to midnight every other day, except to 12.30am on NYE and NYD.

Cafes & Restaurants

No. 67 will be closed on Christmas and Boxing Day, and New Year’s Eve and Day, but will open from the 27th to the 30th, between 10am and 3.30pm, for brunch only.

Theo’s will have a nice break, as they close at the end of service on Friday 23rd, reopening 3rd January at 12pm. The Pigeon Hole takes an even longer break, as it’s already closed and will reopen only on 4th January.

If it’s coffee you’re after, Lumberjack will close Thursday 22nd at 6pm, reopening at 10am on 2nd January. Brewbird will close at 3pm on Friday 23rd, reopening 3rd January at 8am. Fowlds will close at 2pm on Christmas Eve, also reopening on 3rd January.

Best option for coffee is Daily Goods, who will close at 12pm on Friday 23rd, reopening at 9am on Wednesday 28th, then close again on Saturday 31st at 3pm and stay closed on New Year’s Day.

Others

If you want to service your bike before going out to cycle off some excess calories, you’ll have to get to Cycle PS before 5pm on Friday 23rd, as they don’t reopen until 2nd January.

Author: Peter

Long-time resident of Camberwell, author of this blog since July 2004.

11 thoughts on “Christmas and New Year’s Opening Hours”

    1. There will be a suitably plasticky suburban hits compilation LP show of the sort you find in the charity shop, Maude: “From Beckenham to Benidorm Knees-Up” style. There will be a piece about the show on the “Dulwich Diverter”, the new “Peckham Peculiar”, in January.

      I have to say our move to the 1920s “entre-les-guerres” splendour of Airport House, Croydon, has suited us perfectly, so appropriate for the head-in-the-clouds, wandery nature of the programme.

      Well, today is the old ceremony day, the solstice, and the ancestors who dwelled by the wells of the first hill to rise above the swamps of Walworth will be blowing their bone-flutes tonight whilst the worshippers at the Den watch Millwall tribe and Charlton tribe clash by night in ritual idiocy.

      Ten days of this strange year to go. The populist people are happy. They have taken back control.

      It is nice to see that our Harriet Harman is now the current longest-serving Member of Parliament. When she first sat, she was even a surprise to herself, heavy with child and bloomin’.

      Today she is a tough old bird and seasoned campaigner, knowing in the lore of that camp, fairytale cathedral to menocracy just across the Thames from us. Perhaps her wisdom will be squandered by the squeaking people’s people now peopling the Labour Party Membership.

      We will all have to think wider, wiser and well beyond the box provided for us by any of these shrill didacts. But the people of Camberwell are used to change. Speed up the film of this crossroads of humanity and you see a fabric being woven by a billion intersecting threads of all colours and consistency — here some gold, here deep blue, here scarlet — in a pattern of immense intricacy and interlocking strength.

      We are the famous London Suburb.

  1. I return briefly at this festive time to heartily recommend the new Turkish grill place, Tazze.

    They do that rare thing for Camberwell — true lamb doner, not elephant leg. They’ve also got some excellent Turkish stews going — well worth a look. Everything I’ve had has been very tasty and also superb value.

    As a side, they serve the warmed flatbread instead of pitta. You get something comparable in Mangal.

    I’ve spent too much time in Golden Grill and Bolu over the years and, while they are great, this place beats them both.

    It is in the blighted spot on Church St previously occupied by Shanghai Taste and various curry predecessors who always seemed to struggle a bit. The new owner has got the decor and approach a bit wrong and I wonder if it will survive. It’s a clash of takeaway and wannabe restaurant (I think they’re licensed) and is a bit stark. They don’t seem very busy for now but I hope that changes (thought not too much!).

    It’s a great cheap eats option and my new go-to bab house. Give it a go!

    1. It was OK. When you said ‘warmed flatbread’ I thought it might be something homemade to rival FM Mangal, but it was just a shop-bought wrap. The proper lamb doner is decent, though.

    2. Cheers Peter

      If you eat in they’ll serve you the Mangalesque flatbread instead of pitta, though I’m unsure if it’s homemade. And you’ll then get the meat on a plate with rice (sometimes the rice isn’t that good). If you get a wrap you’ll get the regular wrap you may be describing.

      They need to sort their pricing out really as eating a doner in is a banquet and yet getting that doner as a wrap is the same price.

      It’s still good but I’ve cooled on it a little as the lamb can be a bit tough. The stews are a nice change. Hey ho, what’s next!?!

  2. That’s proper news, Phil, news you can get your teeth into. Dulwich Hamlet are roaring up the table, too. Things may be going down, but they’re looking up.

  3. “Playing on the idea of an urban ruin, the garden will gradually evolve to become rambling and overgrown with different grasses, low level creepers and fragrant plants,” says the SLG. It will be nice to see the patterns of nature rise above the swirls of stone. Nature is one of Camberwell’s saving graces. The bombsites are fondly remembered in Camberwell and Walworth.

    Thank God for organic processes. There was a danger that takeaway menus would be devoid of mistakes now that spellcheck has come in. How reassuring to see in Tazze’s new menu but just “gralic” but, in Albanian Liver, “Sauteed fresh lamb live served with onion.”

    Fung Sing on the Peckham Road, long a favourite, has a nice new, nu-cuisine-style menu with cherry blossom big on the cover just like it is outside the old piano factory nearby every spring.

    “Chicken in pecking grilled style” and “Chinese drunken chicken”. The shops may wish to offer skewered and grilled pedant, but where there are typos, you know the food is good.

    The Peck is still flowing clear through the Japanese garden in Peckham Rye Park despite the ice in this cold January. A brisk walk through Camberwell takes us to view this extraordinary sight, like diamonds pouring from the earth.

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