This well known gastropub, The Northcote, is part of the Geronimo group of pubs where things are run with the customers in mind, and there's a fine mix of the sort of considerations that make a good pub great. The effect has been to create a community within a pub that keeps the customers from Clapham satisfied and coming back for further helpings.

With activities such as wine and beer tastings, quizzes and board games, ale and cider festivals and wine by the glass it's hardly surprising that the place has such a buzz, and that's even before registering regular brews like Sharp's Doombar, Adnams and Hogs Back. In the dim and not so distant past pubs were wine pubs or beer pubs, at The Northcote they blend cheerfully together, and conversions are not unknown.

There's food every day and whilst it's presented on the menu as the conventional courses it is infinitely variable and concentrates on filling dishes of good quality that will keep a body cheerful, well fed and watered as they concentrate on the pub's other attractions.

Eggs Benedict and dressed crab vie with a sweet potato, goat's cheese and onion tart salmon and haddock fish cakes with spinach and butter sauce. The soup of the day can be added to with Oxfordshire bread and Nether End Farm salted butter. Sandwiches ? what a wonderful British invention - are more snacks than sandwich with sardines on toast with tomato compote or sausage and egg on a toasted muffin with cheese. A ploughman would be well pleased with with his board of honey roast ham, cheddar cheese or pork pie, added to for a modest consideration with some tasty chips.

Eight or so larger dishes includes curry of the day with naan bread, roast cod with peas and bacon, a char-grilled beef burger with lettuce, tomato relish and chunky chips or that old favourite ham, egg and chips are well supported by a tasty salad of roasted beetroot, warm goat's cheese and water cress. Their add-ons are dreamy; fries with Cornish sea salt, green beans, new potatoes and a mixed leaf salad are all made to be attractive rather than the all too often limp, uninteresting greens and roots that find their way to the side of your plate.

One of the best features of John Clevely's wine lists (for it is he who has compiled) is their wealth of wines by the glass, starting with champagne and prosecco, all hovering round the £5 mark The Ferreira 2000 LBV port provides an admirable foil for a cheese board that could include Blackstick Blue or Swayledale. Eton Mess, baked chocolate tart and sherry trifle are well-tried and loved desserts to wind up proceedings before settling down for a game of chess or scrabble over some coffee and a well matured malt whisky.

The Northcote will look after your private booking in the Club Room, with refreshments as required. All the gear for a presentation or promo is in house, and the cost is likely to be less expensive than you thought it might be. For further information on this homely and all embracing home from home a quick click on their Website should prove fruitful.