The Birkbeck Tavern in Waltham Forest

Proudly old fashioned pub in the Leyton backstreets with a good ale range and a lively but never intimidating weekend atmosphere. A beloved institution among Orient fans

Friendly staff, lovely old style east end pub

Best tavern in town! Great atmosphere! Everybody is so kind and especially Michael on the Bar. The best

Best vibe. Best music. Best service.

Great vibe. Great service. A secret Leyton gem! Jukebox! Pool table! Amazing garden. Easily the best pub in Leyton! Go now!

Great beer and even greater people

Good old fashioned pub with a good selection of beers. Plenty of tv screens to watch the football at the Euros. Plenty of seating areas. Pub has a lovely garden which is a sun trap and seating well spaced out. Enjoyed our visit and will return . The negatives were the bar maid was not welcoming ,said nothing or smiled but service was good and efficient, also who ever took a dog to the garden on a previous day would have been nice that he cleared up the dog waste and not just leave it in the flower bed.

Nice local pub with a beautiful garden.

Fabulous time in this tavern. Great staff, a wonderful band playing, Friendliest crowd. Beautiful beer garden at the back. The tavern itself has its own local history and beautiful throughout. A memorable visit here when visiting London from Australia. The best !

One of East London's best beer gardens, spacious and green, feels like you're at your grandma's place for Easter lunch. Service with a smile and a chat, decent selection of drinks and reasonably priced for London. Pour a good Guiness

Nice and cozy pub with and old school vibe to it, dog friendly and overall wholesome atmospheer.

I absolutely love this place! First time my wife and I popped in on our way out to dinner and what a great find! Had a good chat to the land lady and her head bar maid Charlie. Great atmosphere and such a warm bunch to hang out with while having a few beers. They don't serve food so you can just order in anything you want! Looking forward to returning and using the pool table or bringing the kids for the massive beer garden with grass! Excellent stuff👌

Decent pub about 7 minutes walk from Leyton underground station and about 18 minutes from Brisbane Road. Two cask beers on handpump when I visited. Lots of outdoor seating some of it covered.

Proper pub, with a pool table and a good selection of beers, nice garden too.

Great old school back street boozer, highly recommended, especially for the beer garden.

Played darts there big pub and a big outdoor garden lively pub

TERRIBLE. Bartender guy with the ladys hair VERY RUDE. SCREAMING to regular customers. Trying to show off in front of his friend. keeping side with his RACIST friend. Not normal people in there. 👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎

Awful atmosphere. Went with friends to play pool, asked to have the table for a game (normally winner stays on) which two locals said yes to, and then started mouthing off and yelling in our faces ‘play your game and then f*** off’. Bartender came over, just to behave the exact same, getting in our faces and yelling at us to ‘complain then, who you going to complain to?’ Forced to leave as feared he would start throwing punches. Horrendous experience.

this pub is just horrible garbage people insulting for no reasons. STAY AWAY FROM THIS MISERABLE PLACE

Fantastic atmosphere and great Guinness!

Brilliant family pub great music. Also dog friendly

Cheap and cheerful pints. Fun setting and was friendly to respectful away supporters

Fantastic East London pub, Old school building and interior typical of the era. I was born and bred in this area and feels great to visit here again knowing how gentrified the area has become and appreciate such old boozers. The atmosphere, the beers and the bar staff are all brilliant. Deffo recommended it.

Hidden gem, proper old school community pub. Full of characters and lovely people. Everyone is friendly and the whole atmosphere in the pub is very welcoming. Nice selection of drinks and snacks and very friendly staff.

Not many boozers left like this in London. Brilliant ❤️

Lovley pub! Very nice atmosphere, games to play including pool table. Servers are great, loads of fun events. Indoor and outdoor seating area , both comfortable. Outdoor has heating. Dogs are welcome! Really great place to spend your evenings at.

Welcoming and friendly east end boozer

Great place to go before or after a Leyton Orient Match.

A delightful building housing a lovely pub. The Birkbeck Tavern is an excellent place to drop in for a beer when you find it on the backstreets of Leyton. Lovely atmosphere. Nearly missed out on 5🌟, due to unavailability of cask ales and Guinness however, a technical issue that will be resolved soonest. A great pub for all!

Traditional (and friendly) local pub. Well run by the New management team . Live music (bands) and the best actual garden in the area, superb in the summer. *update Sep 2023 - food now on offer from local entrepreneur. (I haven't tried it yet).

Much the same as the review below. Away designated pub for Leyton Orient. The tattooed landlady moaning about singing as “it’s doing my head in” and no ales available when we arrived at around 1pm. Useful space in the garden and football shown on the TV . But the door on the corner of the pub, that we came in, was locked when we tried to leave. Not great in an emergency. I guess they are just happy to take the money from a few hundred customers before a match but surely a little bit more friendliness wouldn’t go amiss. Also sort your stock levels out and STOP moaning.

A welcoming pub whenever I have gone. The ladies behind the bar are the kind of bar staff who makes you want to come back if it wasn't out of our way Haven't tried the food but the BBQ sure smell scrumptious.

Asked for a pint of numbers got a pint of numbers and chilled in the beer garden 😊

Great pub, friendly atmosphere, great service, great entertainment, gorgeous bar staff. AND...Great ales!

Lovely pub, lovely people and staff HOWEVER the blond lady who ran the pub (luckily gone now, pheeew!) has some shockingly bad people skills.

Nice pub to visit before the football

horrified to be paying £5.50 for a 0.0% beer when they cost less than a £1.00 in shops and a pint cost £4.60 . new landlady squeezing her customer after just one week of being there.

Great pub. But they don’t open at 11 on Saturdays.

Really nice place to enjoy the day,on the grass, under the 🌲

Great value dor money and awesome garden for the sunny days to come

Tidier and more friendly than I remembered. Reasonable price for a well kept pint of Pride. Worth a visit.

Visited here whilst staying in Leyton and so glad we did .we only popped in for a quick drink but ended up having a few the hospitality from Laura and Barry is second to none so friendly and just brilliant hosts .the second night they had a group on called tumbling dice which were really good too .The regulars in there too made us feel really welcome too.(Wayne and Dan ) wehad such a really good time in there .thank you to Laura and Barry .we too we’re rocking all over the world 👍😃

Miserable landlady needs to give her head a shake, hundreds of carlisle fans giving her good custom and she stopped serving when a few lads started singing, no trouble whatsoever, 6 people in when everyone left for the match, waited 25 minutes to get served too as only 2 bar staff. AVOID

Designated away pub for Leyton Orient. Fortunate for them the only one that will allow away fans. Told at the door by the landlord to behave (great first impression) the bar was 4 deep with 4 bar staff, clearly not enough. What i assume was the landlady was miserable as sin, complaining about singing and at one point refused to serve until people were quiet as it was "disrespectful" she threatened to cut a flag down in the beer garden without asking anyone to kindly take it down. Televisions were beyond low quality but did show the football. keep off the grass sign on the grass with no other route to the benches situated around the grass. Can see why they allow away fans because i can't think of another reason someone would frequent here by choice.

Attended this pub b4 the orient v swindon football match. It is the designated away fans pub 4 orient.

A brilliant pub, you go outside into the garden and you could be anywhere.. You wouldn't believe it is a east end pub. Staff great and prices very good 👍

Good old school pub . Very welcoming.

A brilliant old school pub, none of this fancy b/s, friendly staff, clean & a dam tasty beer 🍺

Really nice and friendly place, especially for an afternoon funeral wake.

These kinds of pubs are so rare - but friendly staff, lovely garden. Highly recommend

A classic large backstreet boozer in Leyton, The Birkbeck Tavern is a hidden gem that has an old school feel and when you walk in a friendly East End welcome. I love pubs like these and more should be done to protect them.

When somewhere takes you back to your youth it has to be experienced. The Birkbeck on Saturday lunchtime was superb, and old-fashioned pub, selling old-fashioned beer, with a old-school jukebox, staff that spoke English and smiled, fantastic place.

What a great family friendly pub. Lovely big garden area, with a pool table and darts. The staff are welcoming and friendly and great with the kids too. Will defiantly be coming back and recommending this gem to friends.

Absolute gem of a pub! Come here for a pint, you absolutely will not be disappointed. Really welcoming, accommodating and friendly staff. Great beer, great pool table, dart board, show the footy, friendly locals, great garden. What more do you want from a pub!? Love it in here.

Always end up in here for a sesh after my team play Orient. New landlord/landlady have improved the beer offering significantly after it had gone downhill over the past few years (used to be Camra listed). Staff and regulars all friendly. Would highly recommend this traditional backstreet east end boozer.

Great pub, great Guinness, massive dart on the wall

Lovely old school pub. Nice atmosphere and attentive staff. Even the provincial landlady was nice 👍

We felt forced to leave by rude and unpleasant staff after our child tripped and broke a line of plastic cups (“snake” they called it) left on the floor. The pub has a certain appeal for those who like east end dives (though all the TVs are low definition) but despite taking down their “no children” sign they’re clearly not keen to share their garden with kids. The place is also clearly in a very, very ‘authentic’ level of disrepair.

Good beer, nice garden. Not cheap.

Top class local boozer. Can’t beat a summer pint in the beer garden!! Love this place.

Nice pub with a lovely beer garden

Great beer great garden staff nice

An amazing pub and truly the loveliest staff that I have ever met! A super friendly and fun atmosphere, amazing people, great music, great drinks and a lovely spacious beer garden. The staff are next level and went above and beyond to help me locate a lost item. I cannot recommend this place enough - it is a real gem and a must visit.

Proper pub making a real effort to look after the customers.

An amazing pub and truly the loveliest staff that I have ever met! A super friendly welcoming and fun atmosphere, amazing people, great music, great drinks and a lovely spacious beer garden. The staff are next level and went above and beyond to help me locate a lost item. I cannot recommend this place enough - it is a real gem and a must visit.

Good back street pub been many time will always go when in the area

Very nice and comfortable place 🤩

I am a big fan of The Birkbeck. A very fun pub with a massive garden. The Landlady and landlord are a very friendly and welcoming couple.

Supposed to be on romantic break in London but enjoyed Saturday lunchtime antics so much had to return for the England Germany final What great staff , very welcoming especially the landlady (aka the governess) Proper English boozer , will be back often . A must try , great hospitality and made welcome thankyou

Beautiful little old school eastend pub tucked away while on a little walk waiting for our car to be fixed. This pub has it all for a day or night out. There's a pool room, public and saloon bar. Dart board juke box a big lovely garden 2 bubbly barmaids and a load of friendly locals. Just had time for the 1 drink unfortunately. Only wish we lived closer so it could be my local. Will definitely be going back very soon.

Great pub, beautiful garden, lovely people!

Very friendly pub/ landlord, great service fast and clean with a big garden, toilets were clean and landlord made sure everything was good with our visit

Very friendly traditional pub. Great bar staff. Lovely sunny beer garden.

Great pub with lovely staff and a phenomenal garden. My new local.

Great to re-visit what used to be my local 20 years ago. Landlady and landlord are lovely. Went for the comedy night which was fun- great and welcoming atmosphere. Loved the garden and imagine will be brilliant in summer. Nice touches like fresh flowers and candles. Duke box and a pool table. What's not to love about that?!

Great pub highly recommend. New management, all for the better. Also Asian food eg. Chinese, Korean, Tai etc will be available on Fridays from the 15th of April.

The Birkbeck is a lovely pub with a warm welcome. It has a great pub garden and really friendly staff. I always ask about the events coming up - they always have a lot going on.

The Birkbeck is a wonderful friendly haven of good quality ales and beers and gorgeous staff.

Been here a couple of times. Staff were friendly enough. Unfortunately the beer (London Pride) was below par and served in a plastic cup. I know it was matchday but this was well after the game had finished and we only went for a quiet pint so glass would have been preferable (other people had their's served in glasses)

Visited this pub as an away fan via an organised visit with others from our club. Arrived at 1:20pm and it was already 4 deep at the bar and only 2 bar staff, husband and wife team. Waiting patiently for 25 minutes to get served, the IPA had ran out whilst waiting, no Fosters not that I wanted a pint of either. Only 1 card reading machine, which the staff argued over constantly, the till kept on freezing and not working delaying the whole process further. Bar staff allege 2 staff called in sick but I doubt this. Nice decor and feel about the place but the service for a match day was simply dreadful and clearly they were underprepared for any extra volume in customers (plastic glasses had to be hurried up from the cellar using ‘mum’s’ services). I for one will never visit this pub again. Shame really.

Always been a good traditional drinking pub.

As a football fan as away day pubs go absolutley outstanding, service 2nd to none. If your an away day team against orinet I would highly recommend. If your a local embrace what's on your doorstep. These 2 are amazing never been a pub that made us feel so welcome.

Nice traditional pub with good selection of ales etc.

Actually it was my first pub in London. Nice atmosphere, a very friendly owner who will match the beer. You can play billiard there as well. Totally recommend! Cheers!

Friendly staff. Football on screen. No queing for drinks. Friendly pub.

I absolutely love this place! It’s not just a pub but a home for the locals. KJ, Pete and Maria are always looking after the customers and especially older adults and vulnerable adults. The garden is amazing for the summer and indoors you feel like part of a big family. Today the kitchen was open and served Haggis, neeps and tatties with whiskey gravy! Delicious! Thank you chef Pete! Happy Burns night everyone!

absolutely love this place! It’s not just a pub but a home for the locals. KJ, Pete and Maria are always looking after the customers and especially older adults and vulnerable adults. The garden is amazing for the summer and indoors you feel like part of a big family. Today the kitchen was open and served Haggis, neeps and tatties with whiskey gravy! Delicious! Thank you chef Pete! Happy Burns night everyone!

Very lovely and welcoming place. The owner made me feel like at home.

Caught it at a quiet time, but seemed a good size pub with a beer garden

Been here twice really welcoming. A very old school pub, shows the football aswell 👌

Huge garden. Good beer. Nice people's

Great location and friendly staff.

Very hospitable venue nice beer pleasant garden especially for a City Pub .Traditional style Pub with sports TV . Only snacks no kitchen

Local pub nestled in the backstreets. Nice if you want a quiet drink but lacking a bit of atmosphere vibrance.

Brilliant pub on all levels,great barlady good pint and a good atmosphere,beautiful buildinf with a traditional interior and one of the best beer gardens in London

Great welcome, everyone friendly, but the pub group needs to provide real ale, food, and occasional live entertainment.

I went with a friend for our first pint in a pub after Covid lockdown, on a Monday evening. It was pretty dead. There is a lovely beer garden (the reason why I chose the venue) but it was raining so we stayed indoors. There were just a few locals / regulars. Dogs seem allowed. There was no food but we were told we could order pizza and have it delivered on site. We did have table service, which was nice. It's a bit unfair to rate this place based on a rainy Monday evening but on the night it was very dead and soulless unfortunately.

An excellent pub with friendly staff. A hidden gem.

Nice beer selection, decent price. I was surprised and pleased since they have a small library ❤️

Local and traditional pub with a good atmosphere. No food service.