London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Paddington and Marylebone
Leinster Arms, London W2
Traditional pub (Stonegate)
17 Leinster Terrace W2 3EU
T (020) 7402 4670 W www.theleinsterarmsbayswater.co.uk f The-Leinster-Arms tw TheLeinsterArms
Open 1200-2300 (2230 Sun). Children welcome until 2100.
Cask beers 5 (Fuller’s, Sharp’s, 3 often unusual guests) Cask Marque, Other beers 2 keg, 3 bottles, Also 1 real cider, a few malts and wines
Food Limited enhanced pub grub menu, Outdoor Tables on street, Wifi.
Monthly quiz (last Tue), occasional live music, big screen sport, board games.
This elegant place sits among Bayswater’s hotel land of handsome early Victorian stucco terraces just north of Kensington Gardens, but still manages to retain an identity as a local pub despite the transience of some of its customers — I spoke to several regular locals at the bar. Inside it’s bright, comfortable and well appointed, a bit like the lounges of some of those nearby hotels, with a particularly pleasant library-style area at the back. It looks a bit like a Nicholson’s — which may well be because it did indeed belong to this chain until August 2010 when Mitchells & Butlers sold several hundred pubs to the Stonegate pubco. The new owners have notably improved the beer offer, doubling the handpump count.
London Pride and Doom Bar are the regular cask beers, joined by guests from the likes of Blackwater, Daleside, Dorset Piddle, Elland, Kelham Island, Lakeland, Salopian and Thornbridge, keg Hoegaarden and Kozel, and the odd bottle of Blue Moon. A short menu offers a choice of sausages, including vegetarian, plus pies, ploughmans, salads and club sandwiches. Big screen sport is a slightly surprising feature given the elegant surroundings but there are corners where the less sport inclined can escape from it.
Insider tip. Regular cask beer drinkers can take advantage of a loyalty card scheme to earn free pints.
National Rail Paddington Underground Bayswater Cycling LCN+ 45, link to NCN6 Walking Jubilee Greenway, link to Princess Diana Memorial Walk
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