London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Soho and Leicester Square
Murals at the Crown and Two Chairmen, London W1
Contemporary pub (Castle/Mitchells & Butlers)
31 Dean Street W1D 8SB
T (020) 7437 8192 W www.thecrownandtwochairmenw1.co.uk f thecrownandtwochairmen
Open 1200-2330 (2400 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome daytimes.
Cask beers 5 (Purity, Sharp’s, 3 sometimes local guests) Cask Marque, Other beers 7 keg (international), 10 bottles Also 40 wines, a few cocktails
Food Imaginative pub grub, Outdoors A few tables on street, Wifi.
Sun film club, Mon pub quiz.
This Soho stalwart has been through several different incarnations in the past few decades, attached to one pub chain or another. It’s now designated a Castle pub by owners Mitchells & Butlers, intended to be individualistic and quirky — thus the exterior purple paint job — in contrast to the more traditional Nicholson’s treatment currently applied to most M&B pubs in the area. This last makeover, in 2006, proved controversial with regulars at the time but doesn’t seem to have done trade any harm: the pub heaves even on evenings early in the week with a generally youthful Soho creative crowd. It’s also brought a much improved beer offer. Regulars Pure Ubu and Doom Bar were supplemented when I called with a trio of decidedly LocAle guests from Itchen Valley, W&J King and Sambrook’s, with Camden Town Hells on keg alongside the likes of BrewDog, Brooklyn, Sierra Nevada and Veltins. The kitchen reaches gingerly into gastro territory with dishes like ox cheek in red wine at relatively substantial prices, and in the daytimes there’s table service upstairs: enjoy the murals on the way up. Staff are trendy and friendly; furnishings are fairly basic, leaving room for the boisterous atmosphere.
Pub trivia. The curious name might suggest an inadvisable way to run a meeting, but as the sign indicates, the chairmen in question were more likely carriers of sedan chairs, a favoured form of transport for the wealthy in the days when London was still small enough for it to be practical. Queen Anne (reigned 1665-1714) is said to have sat for her portrait at James Thornhill’s studio opposite while her transport staff enjoyed a drink in the pub.
Underground Tottenham Court Road, Leicester Square Cycling LCN+ 39 6 6A Walking Link to Jubilee Walkway