Mayflower, one of London's pub gems

I went looking for my family roots in south London and ended up in a pub. I grew up in East London, on the other side of the Thames, but my parents first lived in the same street, Westlake Road, in Rotherhithe. The short side road of cramped, two-up and two-down houses, occupied mainly by workers employed in the Surrey Docks, was bulldozed years ago, replaced by a sprawling estate of council flats.

Shorn of my roots, I repaired to Rotherhithe Street, a narrow thoroughfare alongside the bustle of the Thames. Squeezed between warehouses that are now expensive apartments, the Mayflower pub is just one of several historic delights. Opposite is the elegant St Mary’s Church, designed by John James, a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren. Just round the corner is the Brunel Museum – fittingly in Railway Avenue -- that honours the work of the great engineer.

The Mayflower is the centre piece, a tad older than Brunel’s tunnel under the Thames built in 1843. The Mayflower marks the spot where the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World in 1620 to escape religious persecution in England. The pub where they had their last drink was called the Ship in those days. It was rebuilt early in the 18^th century and was renamed the Spreadeagle & Crown. It was carefully and lovingly restored in the 1950s and renamed the Mayflower to mark its association with the pilgrims. We can be thankful we can now marvel at the architectural delights of the pub, for back in the 1950s most brewers were modernising their outlets out of existence. It must have been tempting for the owners to turn the Mayflower in to some modern monstrosity, as the dock workers who had become the main clientele were disappearing along with their jobs in the Surrey Docks.

But gentrification saved it and in the Mayflower we can revel in the small, intimate rooms, the ancient blackened beams, high-back settles, blazing fires and latticed windows. And we can imagine ale drunk from pewter tankards and clay pipes filling the tavern with the aroma of sweet tobacco.

The entrance is a step or two down a courtyard and it leads directly in to the bar. To the left, a step takes you up to seats warmed by a fire in winter. Turn right and you enter a smaller front bar that overlooks Rotherhithe Street. From there you can clamber up narrow stairs, decked out with portraits of former landlords, and enter a spacious room set aside for dining. This has impressive standing beams while the latticed windows give fine views of the Thames, with barges, tugs and ships sailing by while sea gulls look for food, perched on a mid-river buoy.

One of the best features of the pub is its own private jetty that’s used as a beer garden in warmer weather. It can accommodate up to 30 people who enjoy beer and food while watching the river flowing beneath their feet through the planking and imagine the pilgrims boarding the Mayflower for the arduous journey to the Americas that lasted 106 days.

The Mayflower is now owned by Greene King and the brewery has a vigorous guest beer policy. The long narrow, solid timber bar offers Abbot Ale and – a neat touch of history – Greene King’s seasonal 1799 Porter along with Dark Star Hophead and Hook Norton Old Hooky. Belhaven, Greene King’s Scottish subsidiary, adds its Coffee Brown Ale.

Food, served lunchtime and evening, is of high quality, with daily specials chalked on a board. Vegetarians are well catered for.

The pub opens 11-11 Mon-Sat and 12-10.30 on Sundays. 117 Rotherhithe Street, SE16 4NF; www.themayflowerrotherhithe.com.

The captain of the Mayflower, Christopher Jones, is buried in St Mary’s Church. The Brunel Museum is open every day between 10am and 5pm. It’s next to Rotherhithe Station on the London Overground, which is linked to the north bank of the Thames by the tunnel dug by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He was just 19 years of age at the time and it was his first major engineering assignment. When the tunnel is closed to trains at weekends during engineering work, there are conducted walks through the tunnel from Rotherhithe to Wapping Station.

*Rotherhithe is close to the major transport hub at London Bridge Station. From London Bridge take the Jubilee Line to Canada Water and change there for London Overground, one stop to Rotherhithe. The Mayflower is two minutes from the station.