Fuck Time Out: The Dundee Arms
Before it became The Foo Fighters Arms, The Dundee Arms was the best pub in East London. The previous owners sold it 3 years ago because it was prime real estate and their reasonable prices couldn’t make the rent. It still squats under the railway arches on Cambridge Heath Road, however it’s been refurbished to become another over-priced, characterless bar. Lest we forget what it stood for previously, here’s why The Dundee Arms pre-2015 was the best pub in the world in no particular order:
- If you got there early enough they would put Quavers on the table on paper plates
Also the décor hadn’t been changed in decades and there were always remnants of tinsel dangling from the ceiling
- The family who owned it were full-time legends and would get as shit faced as their clientele
As the evening wore on my glasses of wine would become comically filled to the brim so I’d have to slurp it before I could pick it up
- They’d whack out the karaoke machine on Saturday nights
The pub hired a middle-aged blonde woman who would be there every Saturday night. She would stand next to the karaoke machine with a microphone. Her sole purpose was to switch the song on for you and to accompany you if you felt a bit nervous. On more than one occasion I found myself only half-drunk at 9:30pm on a Saturday night belting out Wonderwall, one arm round the blonde woman’s shoulder, the other clutching a mostly-spilt tumbler of white wine while my mates sang along, voices muffled by a handful of Quavers.
- The smoking courtyard out back
There was something charmingly charmless about the strange smoking den out the back which didn’t have a roof but was so oppressive it felt like you were smoking indoors.
You are missed, Dundee Arms Pre-2015. This quote from the new owner on Time Out absolutely sums it up:
