London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Covent Garden
The Beer House, London WC2
Bar (SSP)
Charing Cross Station (by platform 1) WC2N 5HS
T 020 7839 7397
Open 1000 (1200 Sun)-2300 (1930 Sun). Children welcome until 2100.
Cask beer None, Other beer 11 keg, 40 bottles (British & international).
Food Pies and cheese plates. Disabled toilet on station.
The Beer House may be London’s first cash-in beer bar. This tiny windowless cabin is owned by international transport catering specialist Select Services Partners, the company behind familiar names like Upper Crust and Costa Coffee. In previous incarnations it was arguably one of the most unloved bars in London but late in 2011 it got a sombre cream and battleship grey makeover, a beer bottle window display and a new identity as a “craft beer bar”. The friendly staff have had special training, including familiarising themselves with the stock, but they don’t get involved in the ordering, which appears to have been done by people who don’t actually know very much about craft beer and/or have been limited to drawing on favourable supply deals.
While there are some decent beers on the list – the Koningshoeven La Trappe brands, Goose Island, Schneider Weisse – they seem to have ended up there by accident, alongside far too many undistinguished exotic lagers like Hue, Lucky Beer and Moosehead. The old handpumps are gone – probably a good thing given the likely challenge of cellaring cask beer successfully in this cramped space – to be replaced by an array of keg taps dispensing some reasonable but not particularly unusual brews at captive audience prices, including two Meantime beers, Brooklyn Lager, Krombacher Dark and draught Innis & Gunn. Taster trays of three thirds sell at £5.
The space is more comfortable than before but it’s certainly not a place to settle down for an evening and of course that’s not really what it’s intended for – most customers are keeping an eye on the live departure screens. The beer list is set to evolve but decisions are likely to be taken on the basis of sales which, as little effort is made to engage drinkers with more unusual choices aside from some “tasting notes” largely comprising marketing guff, I expect it will get less rather than more adventurous. When I called, pints of Heineken seemed the most popular choice. Yet the Beer House is planned as a template for a potential chain of such places, with a bigger venue, the Merchant, already planned for Liverpool Street. While it’s gratifying to know big commercial players are catching on to the resurgence of interest in speciality beer, this really isn’t the way to go about it.
Insider tip. The Beer House doesn’t have its own toilet so you’ll have to use the station one – but ask for a token at the bar first or you’ll end up paying for the privilege.
National Rail Underground Charing Cross River Embankment Cycling LCN+ 6 6A, links to NCN4 Walking Thames Path, Jubilee Greenway, Jubilee Walkway
I’m familiar with some of these guys. They sometimes drink in the bar in work in, which I won’t mention for obvious reasons. They are always far more interested in our suppliers, margins etc than actually worrying about the best beers to source for themselves and sell at a price that suits both them and their customers. Horrible, cash-in. I hope this venture dies on its arse.
Much improved during 2013 with the introduction of hand pulls and cask ale – nuffin’ special but reasonable Fuller’s London Pride, Greene King IPA, and occasionally Greene King IPA Gold. Not as adventurous as the Beer House Waterloo though. SSP’s Bite Discount Card (free, and giving 20% off most of their food and drink outlets at UK mainline railway stations) makes the prices a bit(e) more competitive.