Legit British gastropub opens in heritage-listed South Brisbane space

Alex Derrick has managed more than 100 pubs in his career, but it’s the first he remembers most fondly.

“It was The Mason’s Arms in Battersea,” says the Australian-born Derrick, who hadn’t poured a single frothy before he jumped on a plane to London in 1999. “It was all handwritten blackboard menus, a hodgepodge of furniture everywhere, sanded floors, big windows, an open kitchen.

“What we served changed every few days, depending on what we could get our hands on … it just tended to massively exceed expectations when it was brought out to you. That’s a pretty powerful thing.”

Derrick moved back to Australia in 2023. He says memories of The Mason’s Arms echo through The Rose & Crown, which he opened in South Brisbane in late February, his first English boozer inspiring his first Australian one.

“My wife [Bella Derrick] is an interior designer and worked with me on a lot of the pubs back in the UK. Between us for the last eight or nine months, we’ve been buying stuff from Marketplace and Gumtree and eBay and storing it under the house – mismatched dining tables and chairs.

“But that look all leads directly back to that first pub in the UK.”

The Rose & Crown occupies the heritage-listed Collins Place in South Brisbane, built in 1889, which in the past has done time as a private residence, a police station and, during Expo 88, a spaghetti restaurant. Most recently, it was Little Big House, a Queensland-themed pub, which closed in December.

The Rose & Crown retains the bones of Little Big House, with its brick and timber fit-out, downstairs and upstairs bars, and latticed wraparound verandahs and outdoor areas with views across Grey Street, but the Derricks have given everything a very British vibe, with a white-and-teal paint job, walls decorated with plates and old-school paintings, and heavy timber tables.

Each bar has 12 taps pouring a mix of European and Australian beers and ciders, including Magners and Guinness. There’s also a Euro-centric 40-bottle wine list, and a clutch of cocktails. Derrick is particularly proud of a traditional cask ale the bar is pouring that’s produced by Capalaba’s Bacchus Brewing.

“There’s no one else in Brisbane who does that, that I’m aware of,” he says. “And it’s one of our top-selling beers. We’ve had quite a few British expats come through and say, ‘You’ve saved my life.’”

But food is just as important at The Rose & Crown, with chef Kevin Honeywood (who also used to own pubs in the UK) cooking a menu that mixes British classics with more modern dishes.

For snacks and starters there’s a Scotch egg with mustard mayo, pork sausage rolls and potted crab with lemon butter and brioche. Mains include beer-battered fish and chips with mushy peas, a braised steak and Guinness pie, and Cumberland sausages with leeks, mash and onion gravy.

There’s also a Sunday roast menu that features beef, chicken, and nut roast served with Yorkshire pudding, roasted vegetables and gravy.

“You see a table of eight blokes having some pints after work beside someone having three courses of great food – everyone mixing in from all different backgrounds for different occasions, or it can just be something spontaneous. That’s what a pub is all about, at the end of the day.”

There’s no TAB and no pokies (Derrick jokes there’s “not even a parmi” on the menu), making The Rose & Crown a relatively rare and precious thing in a city that’s come to rely on brewpubs for its local drinking holes.

“I wanted something that would stand out,” he says. “That had a little bit more personality and wasn’t just a box-checking exercise. The feedback we’re getting is people are enjoying that aspect to it. It’s just old-style pub retailing.”

Open Mon-Wed 11am-10pm, Thu-Sat 11am-12am, Sun 11am-9pm

271 Grey Street, South Brisbane, (07) 3518 3400

roseandcrownpub.com.au