London Pub Tour 52 - Balgravia: Traveller's Tavern and Belgravia

There are pubs which I've been in before and their really not to my taste/style/suiting. Call it what you may but as part of the London Pub Tour I'm attempting to record visits to all pubs, so I have to return to those pubs I may not want to. So after work one day I decided to pay a visit to two nearby pubs which I generally don't go to. The first pub I visited was the Traveller's Tavern (SW1W 9RB) which is based right next to the arrivals terminal of Victoria coach station. The pub is a Greene King (Ex-Taylor Walker) and is of course popular with travellers before boarding a coach. There is a small outside seating area which is normally full of people smoking and drinking in the good weather. Entering through the front door the bar is towards the rear on the right left wall. The pub has lots of low tables aimed at dining, and the occasional large booth seating area and a few high tables on the outside. There is a wood floor that leads up to the bar area but the rest of the pub is carpet.

The bar had 4 hand pumps with three on offering up Sharp's Atlantic, GK IPA and Old Speckled Hen. On keg there was Camden Hells and Pale, Stella, Over Easy, Guinness, Hop House 13, Sharp's Pilsner, Fosters and Peroni. I went for old faithful, Stella, at £4.90. There were plenty of seats free so I sat down at a small table. Upon sitting down I noticed two more pumps selling beers from Curious Brew (Chapel Down) - Curious Brew Lager and Curious IPA, drat. The tables offer some space to sit down and have your luggage besides you without blocking up the pub. The walls have fake wood panel wall paper that I see so often in Taylor Walker pubs. An American couple sat down at the table opposite me and all credit to the bar staff member who came over and took their food order considering it's not a table service pub, but then again maybe they know American's tip, or is that me being cynical.

Now I have to explain why I don't like the Traveller's Tavern. For me this always feels a lonely and depressing pub. It's normally full of lone travellers taking up a whole table by themselves milking a soft drink whilst killing time. No conversation, no life, soulless. Add to this I seen the same old woman in here as I did when I last popped in here 8 months ago. Yes I recognised the elder lady. You honestly couldn't mistake her, and I guess this does prove they have at least one regular. Now as I seen they had Curious beer I had to stay and have one of them but the one I wanted to try, the IPA, was off, so instead I settled for a half of the Curious Brew Lager. I've had this beer in bottle before and it tasted much better then. This one tasted quite bland.

I left the Traveller's and walked to the top of the road, turning left at the Natwest and walking to the far corner of the coach station where the buses leave via. Opposite the petrol station here is my final stop the Belgravia (SW1W 9JL). The pub sits underneath a tower block, and is below street level. Walking down the steps leads you into the beer patio which has some benches, metal tables and an outside TV. Now the Belgravia was refurbished and rebranded a few years back as a Sports Bar. The pub doesn't quite meet the sports bar critieria apart from having this outside TV and a three TVs inside. Entering the pub through the cream doors and the bar is directly ahead. The bar itself is cornered in by support pillars so although it stretches slightly to the left and right, all the taps are contained within these support pillars.The pub had two hand pumps serving Landlord and Doombar. In keg there was Punk IPA, Thatchers Gold, Hop House, Guinness, Heineken, Peroni, Strongbow Cloudy, Orchard Pig Reveller, Estrella and Stella.

I bought a pint of Punk IPA which cost £5.80. The pub certainly does attempt to act up market and adding on Sports bar to its tagline, to charge people more for their drink, but it is just an estate pub near Victoria. The floor is wood and the bar is a pale green wood panel. There is a dart board area round to the right. Also on the right are some high tables with high stools. On the left are some larger tables with some cushioned seating running under the front window. There are some stools on the side of the bar which were in use by the regulars. If watching sports in this pub then truly the best place to watch it is outside as inside has too many pillars to disrupt most people's views. All this together leads onto why I don't like this pub. It's attempting to be something it isn't and hoping to charge a premium because of it. Alongside that one time I went in and they had run out of all bar one beer, which was at that time Carling, what a way to run a pub.

The Belgravia though unlike the Traveller's does have locals, so it at least can build up more of a community feel. When I was there an old Irish man was getting the barman to look up some long distance flight prices for him. Those are the little things that I like in pubs, but sadly its the marketing of this pub which I dislike.