DECOR ** (functional) DRINK **** (ales aplenty but all out of butterbeer) PRICE **** (bring your student card for discounts) ATMOSPHERE *** (friendly and down to earth) STAFF *** (a wizarding welcome)

AS THE angry mob looted their neighbourhoods last week, I was busy searching for a boozer in Lewisham and Greenwich which didn’t have a group of hooded hooligans huddled outside it, carrying an HD widescreen TV in one hand and a flaming torch in the other.

It’s truly mind-boggling and sickening when you see these thugs burning down Woolwich’s Great Harry pub.

I was never the world’s biggest fan of the Wetherspoon, but why crap where you eat? Senseless.

A war zone on a good day anyway, I headed to New Cross, where apart from the sound of the occasional police siren, it was eerily quiet and the streets were surprisingly calm.

A stone’s throw from New Cross Gate station and opposite Cummin’ Up Caribbean takeaway, is the equally curiously named The Hobgoblin.

Half expecting to walk in and find Dumbledore sipping on a pint of Butterbeer at one end of the bar, Voldemort downing a shot of Firewhiskey at the other and Harry Potter looking lost by the fruit machine, playing with his wand and searching for the entrance to Diagon Alley, I took a page out of the rioters’ book and tried my best to conceal my muggle mug.

But The Leaky Cauldron this is not and it is of course named after the Wychwood Brewery’s famous ale of the same name.

However, bare as Hagrid’s hut and furnished with some worn looking wooden tables, benches and chairs, it could do with one of Herminone’s 60-second makeover spells.

The interior offers basic functionality over style and cosy comforts, but with a 20 per cent discount for students, I am sure there are few complaints from the bright sparks attending lectures in the nearby Goldsmiths College.

Blushing after the barman mistook me for one of our disaffected youth, asking if I had an NUS card, I ordered a pint of Boondoggle (£3.15).

The blonde ale’s name is an American term first coined in the 1920s, meaning ‘work of little value’ — an activity which I am famous for and which regulars at this pub can be observed doing on a daily basis.

Unfortunately boondogglers were thin on the ground when I visited but the two drunken monkeys propping up one side of the bar were friendly and had plenty of praise for my choice of tipple.

However, if making new friends over a pint is not for you, there’s always the tantalising Stacker game in the corner, with prizes including giant lollipops and other treats for players with a sweet tooth.

As student boozers go, this one represents pretty good value for money but it’s hard to see it being any real competition to the trendy Amersham Arms just up the road.

The Hobgoblin and its eccentricly named cask ales may sound like they are straight out of one of J K Rowling’s wizarding novels, but any magic here is on a strictly do-it-yourself basis.

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