England V USA: The Ultimate World Cup Pub (bar & restaurant) Crawl

By Faye Armstrong

It’s 7.20 on Saturday evening. Clapham high street is eerily quiet. Either I’m the only one who’s survived the apocalypse or everyone’s safely piled into one of the copious bars to watch England’s World Cup opening match against the USA.

Entering The Loft, it’s obvious that doomsday has not come to fruition, or if it has its magnitude was nowhere near what was predicted in the Book of Revelations. There were people everywhere; if you want a place with atmosphere to watch the world cup, The Loft is a safe choice.

If you want a place with atmosphere and two massive projector screens to watch the match unfold, then The Loft is definitely a go to.

If you want a place with atmosphere, two massive projector screens and be a floor up, high above street level (not too much to ask for is it?), then The Loft is the only place you want to be heading to.

Four minutes in and we’re off to a good start. I have a cocktail in hand (don’t worry, there are plenty of bottled beers and beers on tap for you guys, and with The Loft offering a bottle of Staropramen for £2 you won’t go thirsty) and England have scored. Cue ear splitting hollering and chants of ‘come on England’ in bass level frequency.

Curled up on one of The Loft’s comfy brown leather chairs, somewhat like a vintage Lazyboy, I feel as comfy as I would at home. Only at home there’s no sour faced bouncer telling me to take my feet off the furniture. Oops, perhaps I did get a bit too comfy. However, at home there’s also not an unlimited supply of drink and lovely, beautiful hostess’ fawning over me. Reassessing, the sour faced bouncer ‘aint so bad.

It’s almost over, somewhere in between England scoring and me finding myself on my third cocktail and full with a selection of The Lofts sharing plates (mini burers, mini fish and chips, whitebait, humous, halloumi – it was 5 for £15 and who am I to argue with a bargain like that?) the USA have managed to equalise. The obligatory ‘oohs’, ‘ahhs’, and ‘just Roo it’ ensued, but without avail.

The only disappointing part of my trip to The Loft? That England didn’t win only drew. On the upside, The Loft is a great place to drown those World Cup sorrows.