Since this review was published, The Commercial has undergone refurbishment. Time Out Eating & Drinking editors, March 2017.
On a narrow bend opposite Herne Hill station, a short bus hop from Brixton, the Commercial is a pleasurable pub in which to spend some time. It’s one of the more modern Mitchells & Butlers pubs, not dissimilar in style to the Crown & Sceptre in Fitzrovia in the way it mixes old-fashioned pub culture with new school pub cooking and a comparatively enlightened approach to beer.
Two expansive rooms of stripy furniture and contemporary colours, with Wi-Fi and board games, accommodate drinkers and diners, while a pie slice of back garden houses a handful of tables and umbrella heaters. A board in the spruced-up main bar proclaims the presence of 21 draught beers (including Red Stripe, Paulaner, Franziskaner, Sierra Nevada, Peroni and Beck’s Vier), three ciders and four ales (including Fuller’s London Pride and Sharp’s Doom Bar).
Food stretches from bar snacks (fried chorizo, houmous) to larger, workaday meals (burgers, Sunday roasts); a Monday quiz diverts the locals.