After judging visits by volunteers the overall winner of the branch Pub of the Year 2026 is Hand & Marigold, Bermondsey Street.

Congratulations to the licensee and all staff at this most worthy winner for achieving their success in competition with other great venues.

Oli Carter-Esdale and Alice Hayward, took on an empty shell of a pub and have created a welcoming, traditionally-styled, wet-led freehouse, utilising a perfect blend of Oli's experience running the successful Trafalgar Freehouse in Merton SW19 with Alice's design flair and experience working for Cloudwater brewery. The pub sources their beers and ciders from independent and family-owned producers.

For Alice, Bermondsey was the ideal location to fulfil her dream of running a pub, having traced seven generations of her family who lived in the area.

The Hand & Marigold dates from the late 18th century and in the early 20th century was leased to Watneys. In the 1990s the pub was bought by Eileen Webb and has remained in the same family ever since. Sadly COVID took its toll and the pub closed in 2021 but the owners were always keen to see it reopen. The large, etched mirror on the wall of the bar is on loan from the Webb family.

The pub will now compete in the Greater London Regional stage of the national competition and we wish them well as they go forward.

The four area winners were as follows:

SE1 postal district area: Hand and Marigold, Bermondsey.

Greenwich: Green Goddess: Blackheath Standard.

Lambeth and Southwark outside SE1: Mayflower, Rotherhithe.

Lewisham: Shirkers Rest, New Cross.

Thanks to all those who took part in the voting and the judging to determine the overall winner.

You can view a list of previous branch pub of the year winners in our Branch Archive.