Bricklayer's Arms, Putney

A late addition to our Top 25 pubs tour, the Bricklayer's Arms in Putney was quiet on a Sunday night: literally the kind of atmosphere were the locals look up at you and go quiet when you walk in. Which for a multiple award-winning, often recommended pub that must get a lot of visitors, is kind of strange, no?

They don't seem to serve food, and only two ales appeared to be on offer at the bar. (But a dozen pumps, the rest of them empty, may be promising for a better selection on busier nights?) The bar itself is not very comfortable, but classic, dry wood-floored pub style, with vintage but not terribly imaginative decor. They don't take credit card, or make much effort at friendly service (again, maybe unless you're a local?), and I kind of get the feeling it will be busy, too loud and understaffed on a Friday night. I hope the normal beer selection is what caused Des De Moor to rate this so highly.

William IV, Leyton

The latest leg on our tour of De Moor's Top 25 London bars takes us to the William IV, on High Road Leyton. After a bracing walk (the pub is a good 20 minutes from the nearest London Underground station), we found the pub to be unassuming and quiet on a Thursday evening. Kitted out like a old-fashioned local, but with an unusually large floor space and a huge bar running the whole length of the building, there were bare tables, mismatched chairs and threadbare carpet. (And a bar billiards table, which we didn't play but the mere sight of took me back to an earlier generation!)

I mention that there was lots of space in the bar both because it was nice to be able to find a quiet corner to drink in, and because despite the quiet evening, the bar seemed to be understaffed. In fact they had to close the kitchen half an hour early (after we asked about the last food orders only 40 minutes before), so sadly we're not able to review the food available (although the menu looked nice).

The Market Porter (Borough)

Last week, right after shopping at Utobeer (review), we went to the nearby pub The Market Porter, another one on our Top 25 list.

The place looks well kept from the outside, but is fairly plain inside, with game machines and all. There's a restaurant upstairs that we didn't visit;  though, judging from the photos on the pub's website, it look considerably nicer than the downstairs area.

I've been here on a weekend market day and the pub's immediate proximity to it makes it a very busy place. This time we went on a week day, just after the market's closing time. The pub was considerably less busy, though the nice sunny evening meant that a lot of people gathered drinking outside. The staff at the bar was probably still set to "busy market day" mode, served us a bit dismissively and insisted on giving us plastic cups even though we had a table inside (got our glasses after some discussion).

Southampton Arms, Highgate

In the ongoing adventures of the Top 25 London Pubs explorers, our intrepid team trekked north to the Southampton Arms in Highgate. An unassuming venue from the outside (the pub name is almost invisible in faded and flaking paint, the slogan "ALE CIDER MEAT" catching the eye), it's also basic and a little shabby inside. Rickety wooden tables and uncomfortable seats crammed into a small floor space before the bar on the long wall, some space outside which was closed off mid-evening (presumably out of respect for the neighbours), and the "smoking area" on the sidewalk out front which allows fumes into the pub.

The beer selection is great (more on which below). We weren't expecting to eat here, as it's not that sort of pub; if I had any interest in various cold cuts kept beside the bar, I might have been put off by the bartender chopping the meat, handling it with his bare hands and popping occasional morsels into his mouth as he did so. The pub rather proudly announces that they don't take credit cards, they don't have a telephone, and don't make bookings; this is billed as refreshing simplicity, but is really just poor customer service. The bar staff are similarly lackadaisical in attitude—serving locals out of turn and generally paying very little attention (I waited a couple of minutes at the bar at one point while three (count 'em) bar staff chatted among themselves or with regulars and made no attempt to serve anybody). The men's toilets deserve a special mention: situated outside, the privy is ventilated (read "open to the elements and bloody freezing") rather than cleaned.

Dog and Bell, Deptford

This week's visit to a de Moor Top 25 Pub brought us to the Dog and Bell on Prince Street in Deptford. Although only a five minute walk from the train station, this pub is squirreled away at the far side of a quiet estate, and it's hard to imagine you'd happen upon it by chance. But what a chance it would be if you did!

On a Thursday night it was quiet in the Dog and Bell, unlike many of the over-hyped pubs in de Moor's list; a cluster of regulars chatting around the bar and a couple of small groups at distant tables. We found a quiet corner and we undisturbed all night. Music was playing unobtrusively, and at one point a football match came on the television, but neither caused us to have to raise our voices.

There were three guest real ales on tap, on which more below, in addition to the LocAle-labelled Fullers taps. The barstaff were polite and helpful; we ordered a bowl of fries which were very good quality for pub grub: cooked in relatively fresh oil, served hot and brought promptly to the table. We didn't try anything from the rather traditional pub menu, but by that evidence it's probably pretty decent. All in all a very pleasant evening; as out of my way as the Dog and Bell is, I'm pretty likely to go there again some time.

Ye Olde Mitre, Holborn

Our latest visit to a Top 25 Pub in London took us to Ye Olde Mitre in Holborn: a small pub tucked away just off Hatton Gardens. Despite being relatively hidden it gets pretty rammed after work with suited city workers, although the crowds do tend to thin out as the evenings wear on. One of the ways the staff cope with the potential mayhem at the bar is to provide table service to the upstairs room where we were sitting. Not a bad idea considering the steep staircase which isn't a natural friend to lubricated people carrying a bunch of pints.

But of course we weren't here for the cosy atmosphere, cheese toasties and picked eggs but the beer. We have to admit to letting ourselves down a bit in terms of taking extensive tasting notes but we did enjoy the Fuller's Seafarers and Darkstar Original, not to mention the Adnam's Broadside. One member of our party was more conscientious than the rest of us so I'll hand you over to his notes...

The Crosse Keys - City of London

For our latest visit to a Top 25 Pub in London we went to The Crosse Keys, in the City. This is a Wetherspoon pub and, like some other Wetherspoons in the City, it's in a converted old bank. The Crosse Keys is massive, with tall ceilings, soberly decorated walls, columns and balconies. If you're looking for a "homey" pub, well this is not the place for you. In terms of service and quality of food, it is very similar to most Wetherspoons; not great, but it'll do. Also, lots of space doesn't mean that finding a seat will be easy. 'spoons are generally busy, but this one has a special attraction: an impressive selection of real ale, starting at up to 20 different types early in the evening. We had the chance to try a few.

The Old Brewery in Greenwich

The latest stop on our tour of the Top 25 Bars in London was the Old Brewery in Greenwich, the flagship brewpub of the Meantime Brewery, just down the road from the brewery itself and with a wide selection of their own ales available. In brewpub tradition there are beer tanks on display in the restaurant section, and copper piping on show everywhere, although I didn't think anything was actually brewed on-site. The range of beers, on cask, keg, or in bottles, is impressive (with a handful of guests, including Adnams and Darkstar), although the prices are a good pound above the London pub average, and the service is truly abysmal. I arrived at the bar with only one other person being served by the single barman, waited patiently, only to have someone arrive beside me just in time to be served out of turn. Okay, shit happens. When this new customer (who at least had the grace to be a bit embarrassed) was finished, the barman just wandered off. I caught his eye, and he turned around with a disdainful, "Everything alright?" (If I hadn't been here to review the bar, I might have left already.)

The Harp in Covent Garden

The Harp in Covent Garden is a famous prize winning pub and part of our tour of London Top 25 pubs. Unfortunately we found it quite disappointing. The location is the most central you can get, just a stone's throw from Charing Cross, Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden. And perhaps it may have been the best real-ale-oriented pub in the West End for a while, but newer, more comfortable pubs in the area may offer a similar selection.

This strikes me as a pub that would have performed a lot better when people could smoke inside. At least, the familiar smell of tobacco would have covered the reek that welcomes you when stepping in. There isn't much space where to move or sit; spilling some beer because of other guests' elbows is to be expected. The upstairs is quieter, but is damp, dirty and smellier than downstairs. We looked at the large amount of dust on the ceiling fans and were horrified when someone came up and switched them on. Our beers just ended up changing taste. This just isn't a good place where to spend a night. Perhaps it may be good for a quick pint before getting the train from Charing Cross, if you have a cold.

Cask Pub and Kitchen, Pimlico

This week's expedition to a Top 25 London pub involved a trek down to the Victoria/Pimlico area to visit the Cask Pub and Kitchen, just off the Vauxhall Bridge Road. The beer range in this place, a prodigious selection of bottles and pumps--on which see below--is without fault. The venue itself, on the other hand, was not really to my taste: it's more of a modern gastro-pub style bar, pretty open-plan inside, and the lack of carpets or any other soft furnishings combined with the crowded bar meant that it was uncomfortably noisy.

Service, while friendly and knowledgeable, was slow, and the one time we ordered a bowl of chips it was waylaid, therefore taking a complaint and half an hour to get to us. That said, the menu looked really nice; not a very wide selection, but better quality than your average pub grub. There must have been a dozen to twenty beers on tap (ten or so hand-pulled from cask), with a very wide range of both British and Belgian bottled beers in fridges both behind and to the side of the bar.

Mad Bishop & Bear, Paddington Station

On our continuing tour of Des De Moor's recommended Top 25 Pubs and Bars in London, we visited the Mad Bear and Bishop, a large, open-plan pub in the second storey above the concourse of Paddington Station. Despite the location this is a remarkably civilized pub, with comfortable seating, not too crowded with commuters, a good menu and a respectable beer range (for a tied pub, at least: almost no non-Fuller's titles on tap).

I started off the night with a Black Cab Stout, a Fuller's ale I hadn't come across before, and was very pleased indeed that I did. It's a pitch dark beer, but with a very dark red translucence rather than pure black; it gives off the aroma of dusty smoke, not as much harsh charcoal as most stouts, more like the dusty threshing of young wheat. The first taste is quite tart and sappy, with more yeasty bitterness on the swill, but a very pelasantly mild swallow. I suppose this is a stout rather than a porter, but it's one of the most mellow stouts I've had in a while. Very pleasing. I don't know why this isn't on tap more widely in London.

Top 25: The Euston Tap

Our first of 25 visits to the top London pubs was not too far afield. We went to the Euston Tap, conveniently located right outside Euston station. The tiny building that hosts it is a lodge once part of the Euston Arch demolished in the 60s. The bar area is simple and polished, there is seating outside and on the first floor, which can be reached by climbing some spiral stairs and is a bit claustrophobic. It looks like they did what they could with the space they had, but the Euston Tap is certainly better for a quick beer while waiting for the train rather than for a more relaxed pub evening; unless you're seating outside, that is.
The selection of beers and ales definitely makes up for these few inconveniences. They have 150 bottled beers, 20 kegged ales and 8 rotating live ales. Yum. I've been at this pub a few times this summer and always was lucky enough to have a really good time sat in the garden area. This time we were upstairs, which was less pleasant, but I nonetheless recommend this little gem, especially if you happen to have an hour to spare before catching your train. Hopefully my fellow pub explorers will say whether they agree in the comments.

But now to the beers that we tried. Unlike most of our beer tasting sessions, the marks and comments are personal to the person that had the beer. I gathered here as many comments as I could get, plus I include some tweets that were sent during the evening.

50 weeks of beer tasting

Over the next 12 months, a group of us are going to visit each of the top 25 pubs in London (as defined in the CAMRA publication, London's Best Beer Pubs & Bars by Des De Moor), one every two weeks. The pubs, and a couple of shops, are plotted on this map, and the pointers will be changed to red after we visit each.


View Top 25 Pubs in London in a larger map

If anyone would like to join us, that would be great. We shall of course post tasting notes and any other information of interest to this blog as we go.

Best pub in London?

To my great delight (although also shame) I was introduced for the first time earlier this week to the Bree Louise, an amazing pub (local Camra's best last year) with a range of 16 real ales on pump or gravity cask, plus lots of ciders (*ack*). (The website sucks, so don't judge it on that.) They haven't gone to great lengths to make the pub itself beautiful either--mismatched tables and rickety chairs are over-crowded into the space, smoke from the smokers on the pavement and in the doorways carries into the bar, and there's almost nothing vegetarian on the food menu, but the range of beer and the friendly and knowledgeable staff more or less make up for all that.

When I arrived at the bar I couldn't see what was on gravity, so I asked the barmaid for "something dark but not too dark", and received a perfectly drinkable pint--but I neglected to ask what it was, so there's not much point in reviewing it.

I then ordered a pint of the Dark Star Festival, which is a clear dark ale with a scent of fruity sap; it's a little tart, but has a good strong bitter flavour and a very satisfying swallow. This could easily become our regular evening beer. (But not tonight.)