I'm now in the final stages of completing all the pubs in the nearby Victoria / Westminster area. Today I had a run of three pubs around St James' Station. My first port of call was the Buckingham Arms (SW1H 9EU) which is one of only 5 pubs that have been in the Good Beer Guide for each of its 45 editions. The Buckingham Arms is a Young's pub with a lovely brown wood frontage. The main entrance door is set back slightly on the right. The first thing that stands out upon entering is the curved bar which bends outwards to become larger towards the rear of the pub. On the first curve of the bar are 6 hand pumps Young's Bitter (x2), Special (x2), Gold and Bombardier. Where the bar becomes larger the keg fonts stands offering up Estrella, Peroni, Hells, London Lager, Guinness, Amstel, Aspalls, 1664 and Founders All Day IPA. I opted for a pint of London Lager at £5.25.
Due to the shape of the bar there is a large space at the front, which is handy as most people are drinking outside and it provides a large walkway space to get to the bar. I went to the wall opposite the bar where there is a ledge for those standing to rest their beer on, and some stalls. On this ledge there are partitions with stained glass. Three tables sit under the front windows in the bay area, with the remainder of the seating set at the rear, past the end of the bar. There is a skylight part way through the bar providing that much needed additional light. The ceiling is dark and the walls painted a cream colour and the flooring a light wood. Atop the bar are some barrels. On the walls around the pub are portraits of the different dukes of Buckingham. There are also quotes written on some of the walls. There is an upstairs dining room available, though not sure if there is also a bar up there. Overall the pub wasn't too packed feeling even though there were 50+ people drinking, which was obviously helped by people standing outside.
Opposite the bar there is an island with plenty of stalls around for people to sit on, so that's what I did. The pub had a nice wooden interior, brown wallpaper and a dark blue looking ceiling. There are high tables under window near bar whilst there are tables all along the left wall. The rear room had a reserved sign on it and was set with just a load of stalls and a ledge running around the edge. There were some army badges on the walls behind the bar which must be related to the barracks across the road. The area is also very busy with civil servants and there were a group of three men in drinking and telling a tale of when Tony Blair came to visit their office and people had to pretend to be working on tables with broken computers and phones. Overall the pub wasn't too busy with only 30 people inside though it looked as it would get busier when the reservation arrived.
Walking up Petty France to the tube station and across the junction was my final stop the Old Star (SW1H 0DB). This is another Greene King pub on a street corner. The entrance is via the side door nearest the station. The ground floor is split with a slightly lower level, which is where the bar is located. You walk through the pub to the rear lower floor, past the sign post showing direction to Buckingham Palace, Parliament and St James' Station. Here you reach the bar set against the back wall. The bar is small and annoyingly has a pillar blocking the space for you to order from. There was a crowd at the bar, but thankfully they were all in one group and just picking up their drinks. The bar had the standard Greene King selection of keg beers such as Amstel, Peroni, Punk IPA and Hop House 13. Cask wise there were 5 pumps serving Knowle Spring, Ale Fresco, IPAl Glory and Amplified. I of course was tempted by the Knowle Spring by Taylor Walker and opted for a pint of this at £4.50. This was a blonde beer which didn't have much taste to it but was drinkable with a good lacing around the glass.
I took my drink and left the crowded bar area and decided to head downstairs to the cellar seating area. Halfway down the stairs there is a table with some seating, for those that wish to have everyone from the ground floor and lower floor look at them. Unlike the upstairs with its green painted walls and very standard Greene King look and feel, the downstairs is very well presented. There's lots of seats and a large seating/dinning area in the wine cellar. The whole pub is very light, even downstairs, owing to the layout of the staircase. The pub didn't feel at all busy even though there were probably as many people in here as the Buckingham Arms had both in and outside. I found a small table and sat down to enjoy my beer and read some blogs on my phone.
