London Pub Tour 38 - Pimlico: White Swan and Morpeth Arms

It was Paddy's day I decided to keep it local to work and visit two nearby pubs that I knew wouldn't be overly busy. My first port of call was The White Swan () a Greene King pub near to Pimlico station. The pub is on a corner street with the front facing the main road and the side facing into a cul de sac. The front door on the corner had been decorated with a red telephone box poster (no idea why). There was a green mat on the floor leading all the way to the bar past many multi colour balloons that were up. I assuming this was their attempt at St. Patrick's Day though non green balloons and union jack flags with a small green walkway doesn't quite scream St. Patrick's Day.

There are lots of low tables and seats in the pub at the front and rear. There are two raised seating areas, one at each end of the pub, which are carpeted. There is sofa seating along one of the side walls. There are no stools at the bar. The pub is quite dark and not much light gets in normally, but with flags and balloons it felt much darker, and wasn't helped by the lights seemingly dimmed to the level that their practically off. The pub was busy but not rammed however, it did take a while to order at the bar due to only two bar staff working. On the bar there were 10 hand pumps which were in two separate blocks of 5. Both sets sold the same ales which were IPA, Little Haka, Belhaven Grand Slam, London Glory and 1730. The keg offering included Stella, Spartzan, Heineken, Over Easy, Fosters, Amstel, Peroni, 1664 and Hells. After quite a wait I went for a pint of Little Haka which was by the Little Brewing Corp. This was the second beer of theirs I had, with the first being a keg beer, and I wasn't disappointed. The beer was only 3.5% but as it used New Zealand hops it had an amazing smell on the nose, and this comes through in the light, sweet and bitter taste. This was certainly a session beer to enjoy a night on.

I opted to move on to my next pub Morpeth Arm (SW1P 4RW) a Young's pub right near the Thames. The pub lies on a busy main road that runs along the Thames and unfortunately its on the wrong side so as no river side views. The pub itself looks very nice from the outside with the white rendering matching the local building style. I entered the pub through the main corner entrance behind the outside gates and benches. The bar is then diagonally across from you in the next corner in a rounded L shape. The pub was busy and there was standing room only left. Generally there isn't much seating in the pub with the front area holding about 8 to 10 tables which were all taken. The side space of the pub beside the bar is mainly standing due to being a narrow space and the route to the toilets.

The pub had five hand pumps, all on, offering up Young's Special, Gold and Bitter, Grandstand and Hop Stuff's Fusilier. The keg beers included London IPA, London Lager, Hells, 1664, Guinness, Peroni, Fosters, Estrella and Aspall's. There was a very good selection of bottle beers from London breweries including Mondo and Yeastie Boys, alongside the Well's beers such as Banana Bread Beer, Double Chocolate Stout and Sticky Toffee. I spotted a bottle of Digital IPA by Yeastie Boys and immediately opted for this. I couldn't believe my luck that I had selected another New Zealand hopped beer which had that same amazing sweetness and beautiful aroma, but this also had an excellent hop kick to it. As the bottle was only 330ml it went down quite easily and I added on a half of the Hop Stuff Fusilier from cask. Sadly this was quite a gritty bitter and wasn't to my taste.

The Morepth Arms like most of the Young's estate have re-branded their sign outside to be focused on the first letter in the pub name, and have relevant symbols then included to build up the letter. I'm not a massive fan of this style by Young's but it's certainly different and stands out from other signs, currently. Surprisingly for Young's the pub interior is carpet with red walls. There is a downstairs cellar area which can be hired for private parties or dinning at Christmas. Within the pub they actually have a screen showing the CCTV from the cellar as it's rumoured that a ghost walks the cellar. Although this is a much smaller pub than the White Swan and it was just as busy, the bar service was excellent and queuing was kept to a minimum. But that's what happens when you have 3 to 4 bar staff on a St Paddy's day.

I called it quits for the pub tour here as I had elsewhere to head to meet mates for a few Guinness, as tradition requires.