London Pub Tour 26 - Belgravia: Nags Head, Wilton Arms, Star Tavern and Gloucester

During a quiet day at work I opted to have a lunch time tipple and so made my way up to Belgravia. My first stop is a pub that I admire for both its quirkiness and all the memorabilia adorning the walls. This pub is the Nags Head (SW1X 8ED) which is an independent pub and also has the name of the owner Kevin Moran on the outside. Every time I've popped in the landlord has been there, and during non-busy periods he sits and and strikes up conversation with the customers. The pub is on a residential mews, though I understand most houses are for investment and not lived in. As an independent pub the owner has their choice of beer and he likes to stock Adnams, which is why outside of Guinness and Carlsberg the other beers are all Adnams (Jack Brand Dry Hopped Lager, Broadside, Lighthouse, Ghost Ship and Bitter).

The pub has a downstairs bar area, which is why some hand pumps have more than one beer badge attached, because the tap for that beer is downstairs. I didn't pop downstairs on this visit but there is a large flag attached to the ceiling with lots of posters and art work on the walls. Downstairs has more tables though is slightly harder to get served in. The ground floor bar is not that large and there are only a few tables against the walls with some bench seating on the wall side and small stalls on the other. There bar itself is very low, and the bar staff are actually lower down behind the bar. For those wishing to sit at the bar there are some very tiny, low down stalls.

As stated in my opening paragraph, the pub is filled with memorabilia all over and it is a mix of sports, celebrities that previously visited, war, planes, film and more. On the war upon entering there is a 3D viewing machine, which is one of those old seaside photographing flicking machines showing some old school erotic material. The pub is strictly no mobiles and encourages conversation. there are hooks all over for people to hang their coats and bags so that people don't take up seats with their items. I could spend many an hour browsing through the items and photographs in this pub.

Whilst I checked out some of the books and photographs I drank a pint of Broadside. Slightly steep at £5 but this is an expensive and touristy part of town. I haven't had Broadside in ages and it tasted miles better than I remembered and went down a treat. I followed this up with a pint of the Dry Hopped lager at £5.50, which wasn't as good as the Broadside but still went down well.

Whilst I was this far up in Belgravia I thought it best to pop a few doors down to The Wilton Arms (SW1X 8ED) which is a Shepherd's Neame. Both this and the previous pub have flower boxes which brighten up the area during the spring and summer. When entering the Wilton Arms you are side on to the rectangle bar. There are tables with seating following all around the outside wall, with some in self-contained booths (separated by bookcases or glass screens). There were quite a few people in the pub but they were all sat down eating. Just past the bar are some steps down to a small lower area where there are additional tables. The whole pub is carpeted and has red vinyl ceiling, harking back to pubs of old.

There were three hand pumps but only two were on offering up either Masterbrew or Spitfire. On tap there was Guinness, Oranjeboom, Ashai, Fosters, Symmonds cider and San Miguel. I went for my trusted lager of Ashai at £5.50 which unfortunately tasted different. I'm not sure whether this was due to the dry hopped lager I'd just had previously, but the pint wasn't that enjoyable. After putting the pint away I made my way back to work.

After work I was still in the mood for a few more drinks so I headed back towards Belgravia and to the Star Tavern (SW1X 8HT) a Fuller's pub on a cobbled mews. The Star Tavern is famous for being the pub where the great train robbery was supposedly planned. Now days as a Fuller's it more aimed at an upmarket crowd from the businesses nearby. Walking up the steps and through the door, the small bar is to your right. The bar is a square (mini horse shoe) with a little space down each side, with bar stools. Directly opposite to the bar is the dinning area with about 10 tables. There is also a private dinning area upstairs. This isn't a large pub and was already very busy with an after work party so was down to standing room in the dinning area, though the bar stalls on either side of the bar were free, so I grabbed myself one.

The pub had 5 hand pumps but only 4 were on, offering up Pride, ESB, Oliver's Island and a guest ale from Windsor brewery, Canberra. On tap there was the usual showing of Fuller's own beers such a Frontier, Wild River and Fuller's IPA, along with mainstream beers such as Amstel, Guinness and Peroni. I went for a pint of the guest ale, Canberra, which was a dark bitter that wasn't offensive or pretending to be anything it wasn't, just like the pub. I had a look at some of the portraits on the walls whilst drinking my Canberra. I didn't stay for another as I had one last pub to knock off on my list, The Gloucester (SW1X 9QR).

The Gloucester is a Taylor Walker pub located along the busy Sloane Street which houses many upmarket shops. There are two entrances into the pub. The first, and most used, is the entrance out onto Sloane Street with the second being through the rear of the pub into Harriet Walk. When entering from Sloane Street the front door is between two bay windows. The bay sits just to your left, but you are advised to walk the whole length of the bar as some beers are only on taps towards the rear. I sadly didn't do this so failed to notice Titanic Vanilla and chocolate stout was available. The other ales on offer were 1730, London Glory and IPA. Lager wise they offered up Stella, Peroni, Blue Moon and amstel, along with Guiness and Aspall Cider. I ordered a pint of Blue Moon which was served with the obligatory orange slice.

The front of the bar was full so I made my way to the dinning seating at the rear that was available for drinkers to us. The front of the pub is quite restricted in size due to stairs leading up to the toilets and a small dinning area, and the supporting walls of the pub. There are some small booth sections on the side, and there are bar stalls along the bar, but the majority of seating is either the rear or the two bay windows. There was a group of workers from Harrods having an after work celebratory drink, but the remainder of the pub were tourists.

The rear seating/dinning area was carpet covered whilst the rest of the pub was a wood floor. The pub stretches back quite far and the bar runs for the majority of this, though I think trying to get service at the far end is less likely then towards the front. Overall the pub upon walking in fills cramped due to position of the bar and the supporting walls. With this pint I called it a night and made my way to the tube station.

London Pub Tour 2 - Lambeth: The Windmill, Tamesis Dock and The Rose

For my next pub tour I started slightly south of where I finished off my previous one in Westminster. The reason for this was when in the Marquis of Granby I seen a pub I'd never been to just over the river in Lambeth.

So I set out via the 507 bus from Victoria on a rainy day with quite a bit of traffic on the road. As it was raining quite heavy I didn't have my phone out for directions and was relying upon memory. As I walked up Lambeth High Street (a very misleading name, no shops at all on this road, which one would expect from a high street) I began to doubt I'd taken the correct road, yet I still pushed on. Then up ahead, a lit up pub sign became visible. I'd arrived at The Windmill (SE1 7JS).

The pub is quite large inside, and a few others had braved the weather and were drinking already. The barman was very friendly and made conversation about the rain, which had just soaked me. There were four ales on tap (Pride, Doom, Landlord and Sharp's Atlantic) none of which took my fancy. I then spotted they had Blue Moon Belgium White on tap. This was the first ever American 'craft' beer I ever had and so I had to have a pint for old time-sake (I declined the addition of an orange slice). The beer still holds up well and it is something that I would drink again.

I sat down in a corner near the pool table and surveyed the pub. It felt to have four distinct areas.
The bar area - with a bar up against the wall and no chairs or tables in front of it.
The pool table area - with an advertising board and plenty of seating around the window
The seating area - doesn't need more description, all the sofas and chairs in the big area opposite the bar
The higher seating level - up some steps to a higher seating level and a TV showing sky sports

The Windmill was an okay pub, though perhaps needs a revisit on a better weather day to experience the atmosphere. I headed off out into the rain and walked the short distance to the River Thames and my next stop, the Tamesis Dock (SE1 7TP).

I've visited this moored boat on the Thames many times through the years, but mainly on fair weather days. I've never really sat inside the boat near the bar as sitting on the deck provides you with perfect view to watch life on the Thames and the seagulls on the sand below. I noticed straight away the beer selection had changed since I last came here 5 years ago (when I worked in the Vauxhall area). All the beers on tap were of the craft variety and as being on a moored yet moving ship, there was rightly no ale. I opted for a pint of Adnams, Jack Brand Ease Up IPA for £4.70 and took a seat on the bar level.

The beer had the usual Adnams flavour with extra hop than normally found in their pints. There were a few customers downstairs drinking, though my only experience of the downstairs previously was for use of the facilities. I sat back and relaxed inside the boat with the sound of rain outside and voices rising up from he deck below. I could have easily stayed and relaxed with another Ease Up IPA however the show must go on, and I had one more pub I needed to visit.

As I walked up to the Rose (SE1 7TL) I could see the large number of people inside drinking. Compared to the previous two establishments, this one was heaving. I noticed that the pub signage was missing from the outside, and upon walking in could see they'd done this pub up since I last visited. The central bar looked great as always, though the pub seemed to have turned very gastro with a young professional, suited crowd.

Mon to Tues, free if you spend £300

I ordered a pint of the Caledonian Three Hop Lager for £4.90 forgetting how much  I actually don't like that beer. There was no seating available so I made my way further back down the pub where I realised it wasn't quite as busy as it had first seemed. Sadly it was the usual story of everyone hanging round the bar area that from the outside made it seem busy. I found a corner with a low table to stand in and done what any sensible person would do and pulled out my phone to read the news and not make eye contact with anyone. The crowd around the bar left shortly after, for which I'll take the credit, for lowering the tone of their pub. I'm not sure if it was with the crowd going or maybe someone walked past me, but my nose pricked up at the wonderful smell of mulled wine flowing from somewhere. It was at this stage I realised that I never come to the Rose this early in the evening before and definitely not this sober. It was always a late hangout spot once you've had a few at the Tamesis and maybe the pub had always been like this and I'd just never realised due to my state.

Well it is with that thought that I finished up my pint, walked out and looked up at where the sign used to be and remembered that I used to call this pub the Black Rose because the pub sign used to be black with a red rose on it....