London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London — Soho and Leicester Square
Traditional pub
34 Kingly Street W1B 5QH
T (020) 7494 0834 W www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/theclachankinglystreetlondon/
Open 1000-2300 (2330 Fri, 2230 Sat-Sun). Children welcome until mid-evening.
Cask beer 8-12 (Fuller’s, Sharp’s, St Austell, Nicholson’s guests) Cask marque, Other beer 1 keg, 3 bottles
Food Nicholson’s pub grub menu
Occasional meet the brewer events, functions
The first boutique opened in Carnaby Street, on the western edge of Soho, in 1958. Eight years later the street, now crammed with “gear” shops and underground music clubs, was identified as the epicentre of Swinging London by Time magazine. An early beneficiary of pedestrianisation in 1973, the area has been through some tawdry phases since, but is still welcoming the world thanks to the enduring interest in the fashion, music and youth culture of its heyday, remaining a London must-see.
Pubgoing round here can be rather hit-and-miss, so it’s good to know about the Clachan near the top end of parallel Kingly Street, a pleasant Nicholson’s pub that boasts a particularly well-used range of handpumps. The regular trio of London Pride, Doom Bar and Tribute is supplemented by up to nine others from the chain’s changing seasonal range – Thornbridge is often spotted alongside Cropton, Harviestoun, Nethergate and White Horse. Duvel, Leffe and Vedett might be found in the fridges. Pub grub is the usual Nicholson’s menu, starting with breakfast. A decently sized main drinking area under a deep red ceiling surrounds an island bar with a big fancy bar back, and mosaic tiling featuring the pub name survives on the Little Marlborough Street side but has been sadly partly obscured by some more recent remodelling. Upstairs is an elegant room with a table service restaurant.
Visitor note. A clachan is a small settlement or hamlet once common in Ireland and Scotland – an image that contrasts sharply with the pub’s actual setting in the busy West End. For more conventional shopping than Carnaby Street offers, you’re right by Liberty’s department store and a few steps from Regent Street and the celebrated Hamley’s toy shop.
Underground Oxford Circus Cycling LCN+39, links to 6A, 50
Hey Des de Moor,
I have recently took over as the Cask Master of the Clachan, and I ‘ve noticed that you wrote this just as the new Manager was taking over. I was hoping you might like to pay another visit and see how it’s changed. I am also wandering what it would take to get into your beer guide (any tips advice would be great), and that we no longer stock Sharp’s Doom Bar or St Austell’s Tribute. These have been replaced by Windsor and Eton’s Knight of the Garter and St Austell’s Nicholson’s Pale Ale. If your ever in the area or wish to have another visit please feel free to contact me on twitter @TheClachan .
Thank you for your time and this review.
John
Thanks for your comment, John. I doubt I’ll get a chance to pay you a review visit for a while as I’m still working my way through a long list of other potential pubs to write about. I’m hopeful that a new edition of the book will be commissioned at some stage and I then plan on revisiting all the pubs I might potentially include. Since the last edition, as I’m sure you’re aware, the beer scene in London has developed hugely, and making the selection is going to be even more difficult than before. For pubs that are part of chains that make a feature of cask/craft beer, like the Clachan, I will probably need to limit the numbers from each chain. To some extent I also take into account location and geographical distribution. My only advice is keep selling great beer!
Note by the way that I have nothing to do with the main Good Beer Guide. The pubs in that are selected by CAMRA branches and you will need to contact your branch to find out how they go about doing this.