Hey there London people. I’m due to meet up with family on Monday in London. Can anyone suggest a proper London Pub, doing good nosh and great beer please. Tiles and brass and pumps and atmosphere. Preferably in a none to difficult place to find. And no stupid poncy food. And proper beer.

Ta, Ambrose

Posted 4 years ago

I believe there are a few. It’s a reasonably big place – almost as big as Manchester.

Might be an idea to give an indication as to where you are meeting.

Posted 4 years ago

Cask, Pimlico. Excellent beer, cracking burgers.
Harp, Covent Garden. Again, excellent beer, not sure re food.
White Horse, Fulham (AKA, The Sloaney Pony). Superb beer, excellent food.

However, I suspect Sir is looking for the Princess Louise.

Posted 4 years ago

Fox and Anchor Smithfield

http://www.foxandanchor.com/bar

Posted 4 years ago

Wouldn’t call Cask a proper London pub, it’s nice but a it more hipsterish, imho. Very good selection of beers, cheap they are not.

Posted 4 years ago

Flashy’s suggestion of the Princess Louise has won- we will see how it matches up to its mixed reviews.

Posted 4 years ago

We had a good meal with decent beer here…
http://www.christopherfowler.co.uk/blog/2014/04/30/great-london-pubs-no-3-the-coal-hole/

Wer’e from North Yorkshire & were pleasantly surprised!

Posted 4 years ago

The Salisbury in Covent Garden. Proper boozer.

Posted 4 years ago

The Dysart?
London has over 8 million inhabitants and is nearly 50 miles wide and 40 miles deep. Maybe a suggestion of where in London you’re thinking about might help. Apparently there are about 7000 pubs in London.

Posted 4 years ago

The central/shopping/business/entertainment bit of Manchester would fit inside Hyde park. A general location would be useful.
The fox and anchor mentioned above is good, great pies. Not cheap though, there’s spoons for that. 😆

Posted 4 years ago

Within Zone 1 would do me fine guys. Not Manchester though.

Posted 4 years ago

I used to love the Princess Louise when they sold Young’s beer and you could drink on the pavement. Now it’s Smith’s carp beer, no outside drinking and the interior has been divided up. I love the interior and the loos but as a pub it’s lost it in my view. The Lamb in Lamb’s Conduit St is worth checking out. not sure about food though.

Posted 4 years ago

The lamb, lamb’s conduit street

Posted 4 years ago

Gonna get my name down in this one because looking for a similar thing for September, so keen to see suggestions……

Posted 4 years ago

Just go to the market porter (10 beers on, 4 ciders normally) and eat better food from the market.

Posted 4 years ago

Can I advise against walking into a London pub and asking where you can get a good nosh, might not end well with the family in tow. 😳

Posted 4 years ago

Founders Arms outside the Tate modern. Everything you want plus a great view.

Posted 4 years ago

Just go to the Blue Post on Rupert Street – A proper boozer.

Posted 4 years ago

The founders arms??! Seriously? It’s a glorified chain/flat roof pub that happens to be by the river and is full of tourists and usually heaving (because tourists always go to the nearest most convenient pub) did you go there after Madame Tussauds and staring at somebody painted silver and standing very still?

If you want a riverside pub it’s the prospect of Whitby or the big one in Putney whose name escapes me.

Posted 4 years ago

pistonbroke‘s comment reminds me of this story about “nosh”. (NSFW)

(OT – Grenadier for me, but not been for a while.)

Posted 4 years ago

The Lamb in Leadenhall Market do amazing scotch eggs + great shepherds pie & Youngs beers.

Posted 4 years ago

The Lamb, Lamb’s Conduit Street
The Audley, Mount St
The Calthorpe Arms, Gray’s Inn Rd
The Endurance, Berwick St
The French House, Dean St
The Guinea, Bruton Place
Holborn Whippet, Sicilian Avenue
The Lamb & Flag, Rose St
Lowlander, Drury Ln
Newman Arms, Rathbone St
Red Lion, Duke of York St
Star Tavern, Belgrave Mews West
Viaduct Tavern, Newgate St
Punch Tavern, Fleet St

Posted 4 years ago

Mrsmith nails it as usual. The Ship & Shovell, Charing Cross for me.

Posted 4 years ago

I miss all the wonderful pubs in London. 🙁

Posted 4 years ago

The Ship, Kennington. Spacious n gracious neighbourhood, outside seating, floral hanging baskets, bar billiards, umpteen great beers, decent scran, and a bit of that “all human life is here” thing that decent pubs tend to have
Stayed in the rooms above it one weekend and wanted to take the pub back home with me.

Posted 4 years ago

The founders arms??! Seriously? It’s a glorified chain

And you recommend Putney ?

Singletrack irony at its best, you nearly had me then.

I’m oldskool. I like a nice stout/porter/mild, ‘proper beer’ as the OP requested, and Youngs do them. None of this ‘challenging’ hipster stuff.

Posted 4 years ago

Walkers of Whitehall if you are at the Trafalgar Square/Charing Cross end

Link

Posted 4 years ago

In the end the family went for the Dicken’s Inn, St Kathryn’s Dock. It could have been worse. But the day was saved by a chance encounter with the Market Porter. Thank you very much 🙂

Posted 4 years ago

The Lamb in Leadenhall Market do amazing scotch eggs + great shepherds pie & Youngs beers.

+ 1.

Posted 4 years ago

Simpsons chop house is always reliable.

Posted 4 years ago

worse than the dickins? Really?

Posted 4 years ago

The Grapes, Limehouse.
The Gun, just off the IoD (Canary Wharf)

Posted 4 years ago

All components of a good STW thread.

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Posted 4 years ago

I know- when will I ever learn.

Posted 4 years ago

Took THM minor 2 to the Lamb and Flag yesterday for a quick pint (and scratchings). Wonderful beer as always.

Posted 4 years ago

And you recommend Putney ?

The Founders Arms is awful and I feel I need to defend the great pubs of Putney. There are;

Dukes Head (probably MrSmith’s recommendation)
Bricklayer’s arms
Half Moon
Prince of Wales
Cat’s Back
Coat and Badge
Jolly Gardeners

There’s even a wetherspoons on the river if you hate yourself

Posted 4 years ago

“worse than the dickins? Really?”

The Founders Arms. As already mentioned, it’s a truly awful tourist trap. Once was enough to convince me it wasn’t worth revisiting.

“I used to love the Princess Louise when they sold Young’s beer and you could drink on the pavement. “

It was awful back then! It’s much better since it’s Sam Smiths takeover and revamp. Youngs seem to take over good pubs, and ruin them, in my opinion.

There’s some good mentions on here,but for future visits, it might be worthwhile venturing away from the centre, and trying out some pubs in the outer zones. Greenwich has a few nice pubs, and there are a couple of reasonable ones in Hammersmith/Chiswick. The Grapes as mentioned, is very good, although it can get really crowded with awful braying city types. Very good food there. The Prospect of Whitby, a bit closer to the city, has gone way down in my opinion. The Narrow is awful; Gordon Ramsey took it over and ruined it. Overpriced, mediocre food and always horribly crowded. Shame, as it was quite a nice pub previously.

Posted 4 years ago

I’m sure several on here will be horrified at the thought, but it is a fact that the trendy hipster types have created some really good places to eat and drink, and to ignore them because of prejudice, would be folly. Shoreditch is very ‘over’, far too busy and commercial, but London Fields, Hackney Wick and Dalston have become the trendy spots for the achingly cool young things these days. If you can bear the ‘ironic’ beards and über pretentiousness, then you could do far worse. I held out for a long as possible, but my wife kept coming back raving about places she’d been to with young colleagues, and I can’t deny that they’re good.

Posted 4 years ago

+1 Market Porter.
Never had a bad pint in there, Plus a good selection of beer types. None of this 5 versions of an ultra IPA bollocks.

Posted 4 years ago

Has anyone mentioned The Harp near trafalgar square? no idea what the food is like and it’s not somewhere i would go to eat but for beer it’s one of the best and thankfully not ruined since fullers took it over.
one of the few places that usually has mild on tap.

Posted 4 years ago