London Pub Tour 61 - Covent Garden: Prince of Wales, Sun Tavern and The Cambridge

It was time to deliver some London Drinkers and at the same time had a beer or three and note them in my London Pub Tour. After picking up my box from the Union Tavern near Westbourne Park station I made my way towards Covent Garden and my first stop the Prince of Wales (WC2B 5TD). As is common in this area of central, this is a Taylor Walker turned Greene King. There is a main entrance on the road from Covent Garden and a side door on the route from Holborn. From the main entrance the bar is on your right situated against the wall, but zig-zagging in and out. The walls are painted dark with a patterned wallpaper between windows. Even the bar follows suit with the wood bar being painted dark. There are about 15 tables in the pub with some high tables opposite the bar and low tables for the rest of the pub. The place is busy and there are no spare seats. It appears to perhaps be the pre-theatre drinkers, as no food is being consumed.

Getting served at the bar is easy and I'm presented with a choice of either Greene King ales (IPA, Old Speckled, London Glory, Golden Breeze and Amplified) or keg (Aspalls Suffolk, Fosters, Over Easy, Peroni, London Pilsner, Big Bang, Blue Moon, Guinness, Heineken, Stella). Going against all my normal instincts I go for a pint of the GK Amplified ale, which is a beer being sold in conjunction with Radio X, so has a big green foam mic on top of the hand pump. It was your bog standard GK ale and came in at £5.10 for this central tourist area. The only positive being that at least 20p was being donated to charity. I finish my drink standing and drop off some magazines before heading on.

As I walk past the Sun Tavern (WC2E 9JD) I note it's not so busy and decide to pop in, even though its not on my delivery route, it has been a while since I've drank here. The interior has been renovated and is very modern. I think the decor is actually nice. The bar is on your left as you enter and on the right are a few rows of tables each with a nice lamp above. The lighting throughout the pub is great and the actually lamps and shades themselves look good. The pub also has an upstairs area with its own bar. Some of the walls upstairs are exposed bricks but much like downstairs most of the walls are wood panelled and painted an off white. I remained downstairs as the pub was quite empty and took up one of the tables on the side wall. On the bar there was Amstel, Heineken, Birra, 1664 and Symonds cider. I can't remember the ales on display because soon as I seen Old Peculier from Theakston. The pint was nice but I think perhaps again the bottle version out does it. I perhaps should have taken more photos or notes but was in a slight rush to get my deliveries done. I left the Sun Tavern and dropped off the magazines at 4 more pubs before arriving at my final drop off for the evening.

The Cambridge (WC2H 0DP) is a Nicholson's pub based just off Shaftsbury Avenue and on the edge of Soho. The outside of the pub is black and there were some tables available for seating. Walking in through the closest entrance to Shaftsbury Avenue takes you in the side door. There are stairs up to a dinning room or you can continue straight on into the bar. The bar run all along the back wall and is a beautiful mahogany wood as you would expect from a Nicholson's. On keg there was London Lager, Hells, Peroni, Amstel, Carling, London Pale Ale and Guinness. On the 6 available hand pumps were Pride, Doombar, Hiver, Trooper, Rev James Rye and Sharp's Atlantic. I've had Hiver previously in bottles and this was my first time seeing it on tap so I went for a pint. The Hiver is a honey IPA and it certainly does have a honey taste to it, though didn't quite feel it was IPA in style.

The bar is laid out with some high tables and stools in front of the bar then the remainder of the seating running under the windows. The seats under the windows are cushioned and all have tables and chairs opposite. The ceiling is decorative and has a chandelier hanging from it. There is quite a bit of space in the pub though I wouldn't say much seating downstairs. The pub is busy with tourists, theatre goers and after work drinkers. Me, I was just glad to have finished dropping off the 140 booklets I had.