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.

London Pub Tour 30 - Brixton: Prince of Wales, SW9, Beehive and Craft Beer Co.

I was down in Brixton to pick up some beer that I had brewed at London Beer Labs. I'll be putting a two part post up on the brew session and the outcome of the beers soon. Whilst down in Brixton and awaiting the London Beer lab location to open I used it as an opportunity to knock off some of the pubs in the area. My first stop was the Prince of Wales (SW9 8HH) or as it seems to now be stylised, POW. The pub is just a short walk away from the train and tube station and just off the high street. The outside is brown with some big windows and not much else to it. Upon entering the pub you will see the bar off to your front and right. The bar stretches from the window across to the far side of the pub, but the area against the window is for a coffee machine and glass collection. The bar actual has metal front and edge which I guess is more durable.

The pub offered up three hand pumps which served Doombar, Tribute and Brixton Effra. It was nice to see at least a local ale on offering. The lagers though were more standard with the except of VPA by Portobello. There were some Brixton bottle beers plus a range of ciders. I in the ended just wanted a plain simple lager after the day I had, so opted for the Budweiser which cost £4.60 for the pint and matched my need and mood.

The pub is quite open with only a few tables on the lower level, and lots of space around the bar. On the raised area is where the majority of the seating and the booths are contained. The pub has other levels but I believe these are for the club levels. Food is served at the pub and there was also a DJ setting up for later, but in the meantime there was some loud music blaring out.. The crowd in the bar was young but it wasn't too busy at this time of the day. On the ceiling there were some fans and just above the bar angled mirrors. The tables themselves are old (maybe reclaimed) and just had dark wood stain put on top which is now chipping off.

After finishing up my lager I made my way closer to the Beer Labs and stopped at SW9 Bar (SW9 8EG). It is difficult at times to determine whether a venue listed as a bar is pub-like or more restaurant, Particularly now with lots of gastro pubs and rural pubs mainly focused on food, the line has become more blurred. In my interpretations the SW9 Bar falls under the 'pub' category, hence why I'm including it in my Pub Tour outings. The bar is just off the main road across from the station, and down a pedestrian footpath. They serve only keg beers which included Hoegaarden, Stella, Guinness, Becks Vier and Leffe. There was a good bottle selection which included local beers from breweries such as Brixton and London Beer Labs.

I got a pint of Hoegaarden for £4.90 and moved over to one of the tables by the footpath window, and near the front door. Outside storm Doris was working away and nobody was using the outside seats. Inside there were only 10 people in the bar. Pop music was playing quietly in the background and the conversation levels were low. The seating on the tables had slight reclines which made them very comfy to sit slightly back in and relax, though I there were some seats that were more like deck chairs on their lowest seating and were perhaps too low for the tables they were placed against. The bar was quite dark and had element light bulbs hanging from the ceiling to add to the effect. The bar was quite relaxing and considering I only had to walk across the road to the Beer Lab it meant I could take my time with the pint.

Once ready I picked up my box of beers and then headed back towards the station. As the weather was still bad and I was going to have to carry these beers all the way home with me on the tube, I thought I needed a slight beer top up, so headed to the Craft Beer Co. (SW9 8PA). This is quite a small Craft Beer Co venue on a market street opposite the railway track. The design of the pub (both outside and in) is minimalist and industrial. The main feature is the bar in the left hand corner which had 10 hand pumps (With a focus on Oakham Ales) and I believe 20 keg beers. The ales were situated on the bar top whilst the keg beers on the large cooper pipe unit which arches over the bar. Being Craft Beer Co. there was inevitably such a large selection of bottle beers from all over the UK and World, it's impossible to name them.

There were a few tables in the pub but all were taken so I was left to stand in the corner at the bar, ensuring I didn't block anybody. The pub wasn't busy, around 15 people, but enough to take all the tables. I had two beers whilst at the pub, the first was New World Order and the second Bishops Farewell, both by Oakham's. Both seemed to be Golden Ales with the New World Order being slightly more malty in taste, but both in good form.

I was still in the mood for another beer so made the decision to visit the Spoons just around the corner, The Beehive (SW9 7DG). The Spoons was quite grotty outside and there was only one door in. Once inside you realised that this must be an early spoons due to the width of the pub. The pub is long but not wide at all, and add to this that it become less wide at the bar area and there are large supporting columns throughout, you can see that it's not quite the usual Spoons open plan pub. There were 9 hand pumps offering Pride, Hobgoblin, Ruddle and Buffalo. Shockingly I couldn't believe that Pride was being sold for £2.65, considering Fuller's consider that their Premium Ale...
As usual Spoons had a varied bottle selection and the tap selection included Strongbow Black, Magners, John Smith, 1664, Carlsbery, San Miguel, Fosters, Devils Backbone, Sambrooks IPS, Shipyard, Coors and Guinness.

I selected a pint of Buffalo by Dorking Brewery which was very smokey in taste and not what I was expecting, but enjoyable nonetheless. There was no seating room and barely any standing room due to pub layout, so I was standing in the area area where a column stopped bar service. A gentleman came in and ordered half a Guinness and was surprised at how cheap it was, so I assume he either does that everyday or its his first time in a Spoons. After uncomfortably finishing off my pint, I finally decided to call it time and head back with my rattling box of bottle beers.

London Pub Tour 3 - Westminster: Constitution, Prince of Wales, Queens Arms & Jugged Hare

I opted to visit some pubs in Victoria that I've been to quite a few times before before but have neglected for a while. The first stop was at the Constitution (SW1V 2LP), which has only recently re-opened after a refurbishment. On the outside the picnic benches had been replace with wooden tables but all looked the same. When walking inside I could immediately see the changes that had taken place although the pub still felt very much the same. The carpet has been pulled up and wood flooring is now throughout, along with wood panelling on the walls. New tables and chairs though very much similar dark colours as before. There was a new tall central communal table, which wasn't plain and was actually very beautiful. I'm unable to recollect whether the ship models have been removed from the top of the walls. The major change was the beers on tap and food menu change. The pub is now under new owners and they have given it a slight bump up market but not too massively.

This pub used to be the only place I knew of in the area that served Worthington Smoothflow though this has been removed. The regulars are still here and I assume haven't been priced out, and they continue to sell some mainstream lagers such as Fosters and Carlsberg, though have added some craft or premium lagers into the mix which didn't exist before. They still had three ale pumps though these were dispensing Doom, Speckled and Greene King IPA. I opted for a bottle of the Orchard Pig, Truffler at £4.70 for the 500ml bottle. It was a run of the mill cider for me, nothing to turn me off but nothing stand out to make me choose this over other brands.

I next headed towards the station to the Prince of Wales (SW1V 1DW). This is a small corner pub with a few benches outside on a busy restaurant street. The pub was very busy and all seats were taken, though to be fair the pub can only probably seat 30 people. I managed to find a space, which so happened to be in the corner near the entrance door, right next to the bar. This pub always has a nice selection of ales to choose from (6 taps) and on this occasion they had Doombar, Pride, Landlord, ESB, Poppy and Over The Bar. Now I'm always tempted by an ESB or Landlord but the Over The Bar was from Otter, and I wasn't going to pass up this as I like their beers and hadn't had this one before. The pint came to £4.40 and it didn't disappoint, and went down a treat.

The pub became busier still, though not sure how, and although I would have liked to try another, I departed and made my way round the corner to the Queens Arms (SW1V 1QT). The Queens Arms is a grand corner pub, that is in perfect condition and good to look at. Now the Queens Arms is not a pub I would generally go to as it is definitely more geared up to being an eatery than a drinkery though on this visit it was actually quite quiet. Not all the tables were full and the bar had a few people standing and drinking at it. There were 5 hand pumps with only 4 in action serving Under Current, Stiff Upper Lip, Ubu and a Sambrooks. Though I had never had Under Current before I felt more in the mood for a lager and this place serves the premium and mainstream craft ones. Looking through I could see Camden Hells, Camden Pils, Amstel, London Stout and a Mondo Brewery beer. I opted for a pint of Pale Ale by Truman's Brewery at £5.10. I've had a few of the Truman's ales but haven't really considered them great so thought I'd give their lager a try. Sadly I felt this too was lacking in the 'wow' or 'I could have another of those' areas. The crowd in the Queens Arms was very young and upmarket and that isn't quite my style. Though the pub does look good inside and offered a few nice bottles, I wasn't going to hang around after my one.

My final stop was the Jugged Hare (SW1V 1DX) which is a Fuller's Ale & Pie pub, which just means a simpler menu choice. The building is an old bank though doesn't stand out too much. Walking into the pub and it feels a nice size. Then you notice there is further seating out the back and an upstairs balcony seating area. One feature I always love is the very large painting on the wall. It's such a busy painting with so much going on in the scene and you always spot something new. The bar had the usual selection of Fullers ales including Seafarers and their seasonal Fire Cracker. They had the Fullers IPA, Honey Dew and Birra Moretti on tap. I had a look at their bottle fridge and immediately seen what I was going to have. I knew that they sold it here, but I'm never quite sure whether today was going to be the day I opted to purchase it.

I decided to go all out and buy a bottle of the Fullers Imperial Stout Limited Edition for £7 something. The Italian barmaid was very friendly and chatty as she served the customers. I poured the silkly black stout into my brandy-esque glass and savoured the smell, before going in for a glup. It was a beautiful texture and good taste. I honestly can't think of a better beer type than an imperial stout, though the only downfall is always the percentage. I thought the bottle would be somewhere along the lines of the Golden Pride, at 8.4% however I was a bit taken back to see it was 10.7%, but hey whats 2% between friends. I sat back and supped the beer ensuring I didn't rush such a beautiful beer as this.