The pub is found in Leytonstone, Greater London, E11 3AA.
This pub stands right in the centre of Leytonstone High Street and has been here or hereabouts since the seventeenth century and on the present site since at least 1839. Historically it was owned by a charity which provided from the profits for the poor of Bourne in Lincolnshire. Various breweries had the lease, including Charrington’s, Hoare & Co., and Barclay Perkins at different times. The three bar layout has been reduced to a single room these days, with a large function room upstairs that is noted for its live music nights. Some damage was done to the historic features when the pub suffered a couple of brandings, first in 1998 as a short-lived ‘East London Pub Co.’ house and then for a dozen or more years as the Sheepwalk. 2012 saw a much-needed sprucing up and a return to the pub’s Crown name, plus the installation of four handpumps. Further change came in 2017, after an undistinguished period as a pretend Irish pub, when this pub was acquired by the expanding Laine Pub Co and was renamed Birds, a doffing of the cap to locally born film director Alfred Hitchcock. This latest incarnation has seen a stripping-back of the décor to bare brick and wood and an opening of the upstairs room as a second bar area.
We have visited this pub 4 times, seen 10 different beers and tried 4 of them.
