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 Clapton Hart, London E5 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
East London: Other locations – Clapton
Contemporary pub (Antic)
231 Lower Clapton Road E5 8EG
T 020 8985 8124 w www.claptonhart.com f claptonhart tw claptonhart
Open 1600 (1200 Sat-Sun)-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat). Children welcome until 2100.
Cask beer 7-8 (changing usually London and unusual guests), Other beer 2 keg, 25 bottles, Also Real cider, specialist spirits, own spirit mixes.
Food Shortish gastro-tinged menu, Outdoor Benches on street, beer garden, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Wed quiz, planned live music, table football, board games.
This vast old pub by Lea Bridge Road roundabout reopened in May 2012 as one of rapidly expanding pubco Antic’s most ambitious projects. Formerly the White Hart Hotel, it was clearly once a sumptuous affair on a prime site, but in the latter part of the 20th century earned a grim reputation as a landmark on ‘murder mile’ and spent the best part of a decade derelict and boarded.
Antic have been working on it since spring 2011 and have left it looking still distressed but appealingly atmospheric, its elaborate exterior mouldings eroded like old gravestones, with only pillar capitals, fireplaces and the old hotel sign displayed on one wall as reminders of former glories. Added to this is the usual seemingly random Antic collection – 16mm film cans, wrecked pianos, dolls and Dinky toys. The already huge spaces around the central bar on the ground floor are soon to be complemented by an upstairs area. The rear beer garden was very much a work in progress when I visited but shows major potential.
A changing but always well chosen selection of cask beers covers numerous styles including milds, stouts and contemporary pale ales, drawing on local brewers like East London, Hackney and London Fields, credible provincials like Arbor, Buxton, Ilkley, Tiny Rebel and Titanic and brewers rarely seen in London (Lymestone and Truefitt on my visit). A few keg beers of interest include Cotswold lager and a changing Kernel beer, and there’s more Kernel in the bottle fridge alongside Freedom lagers, BrewDog, Goose Island and Belgian gems like Rochefort and Saison Dupont. A welcome new addition in a previously unpromising part of town.
National Rail Clapton Bus Lea Bridge Roundabout (numerous Hackney Central Clapton, Leyton Bakers Arms) Cycling Links to NCN 1, LCN+ 9, London 2012 Hackney Parks route Walking Links to Capital Ring, Lee Valley Path, 2012 Hackney Parks route
 Edinboro Castle, London NW1 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London: Camden Town and Primrose Hill
Contemporary pub (Castle/M&B)
57 Mornington Terrace NW1 7RU
T 020 7255 9651 w www.edinborocastlepub.co.uk tw Edinborocastle
Open 1200-2300 (2230 Sun). Children welcome daytimes.
Cask beer 5 (Purity, Redemption, Sharp’s, 2 sometimes unusual guests) CM, Other beer 7 keg, 10+ bottles, Also 35+ wines, a few specialist spirits.
Food Enhanced pub grub menu, interesting bar snacks, Outdoor Large beer garden, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Beer festivals, occasional seasonal events, functions.
Relatively well placed for Camden Town, Primrose Hill, Regent’s Park and ZSL London Zoo, this big pub, recently made over as part of the unbranded Castle chain, is worth knowing about as a spacious local option with some decent beers. A major plus point is a large and luxuriant garden, a rarity in these valuable acres, and its laid back, comfortable vibe is well appreciated by a largely younger crowd, though it doesn’t quite hang together as a first rate pub.
Pure Ubu, Doom Bar and London-brewed Urban Dusk are the regular casks, while guests might come from Hopdaemon or Rooster’s. Also local are Camden Town Hells and Meantime Pale Ale on keg alongside beers from Bernard and BrewDog. Flying Dog, Goose Island and Worthington White Shield enliven the bottled choice, and occasional beer festivals may boost the range still further. Food is sub-gastro stuff – wild salmon fishcakes, free range sausage and mash, asparagus and mushroom tart – competently done, with a good value fixed price deal on selected dishes.
Overground Camden Road Underground Camden Town, Mornington Crescent Cycling LCN+ 6 6A, Regents Canal towpath Walking Jubilee Greenway
 Windmill, London W1 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Westminster, Victoria and Pimlico
Traditional pub (Young’s)
6 Mill Street W1S 2AZ
T 020 7491 8050 w www.windmillmayfair.co.uk f tweetiepieW1 tw tweetiepie_w1
Open 1100 (1200 Sat)-2300 (1700 Sat, closed Sun).
Cask beer 8 (Wells & Young’s, 5 often local guests), Other beer 3 keg, 10+ bottles, Also 40 wines, 28 whiskies, speciality soft drinks.
Food Home made pies and bar snacks, enhanced pub grub, Outdoor None, Wifi.
Monthly live music, beer tastings, pie club.
Just past the north end of Savile Row, famed for its exclusive bespoke tailor’s shops, stands one of central London’s most inviting Young’s pubs. With its wood panelling, deep crimson decor, padded benches and decorated glass, it offers a decidedly traditional, though friendly and welcoming, environment that feels like it’s been around for donkey’s years. In truth the pub was created in 1988 by knocking together a nightclub and an escort agency, and the distinction between the two formerly separate spaces is still apparent in the layout of the decently sized bar area.
The Windmill shares management with another well known Young’s pub, the Guinea, nearby, which is famous for its steaks, but at the Windmill the focus, or rather the obsession, is pies. The pub announces itself as “the Institute of the Pie”, labels its two additional dining spaces Pie Rooms, exhibits pie videos and operates a pie club which boasts several thousand members.
Good beer is promoted as an ideal accompaniment to these pastry topped delicacies, with matching suggestions on the menu, but thankfully also in its own right. The pub has long held special dispensation to stock a wider range of cask ales than is usual in Young’s pubs, and now that the pubco no longer has a financial interest in the beers that bear its name, this seems to be developing further.
Bitter, Special and Well’s Bombardier are present and correct, but they’re joined by local beers from Sambrook’s and Twickenham, and from generally better known brewers like Caledonian, Sharp’s and St Austell. There are several Meantime keg and bottled beers, keg Pilsner Urquell and decent Wells & Young’s bottles like Special London and Double Chocolate. Choice is promoted through selling beer in thirds and “tasting paddle” selections.
Insider tip. Evident care extends to the home made bar snacks, such as house Scotch eggs and delicious fresh cheese straws.
Underground Oxford Circus Cycling LCN+ 50, links to Hyde Park and Soho Walking Links to Jubilee Greenway, Jubilee Walkway and Green Park paths
 Wetherspoons Victoria, London SW1 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Westminster, Victoria and Pimlico
Contemporary pub (Wetherspoon)
5 Main Concourse, Victoria Station SW1V 1JT
T 020 7931 0445 w www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/wetherspoons-victoria-station-concourse
Open 0700-2400 (2300 Sn). Children welcome if dining.
Cask beer 10 (Fuller’s, Greene King, Wells & Young’s, 5 often local guests) Cask Marque, Other beer Usual Wetherspoon kegs and bottles, Also 2 real ciders/perries
Food Shortened Wetherspoon menu, Outdoor None but indoor no smoking gallery overlooking station, Wifi. Disabled toilet on station.
Perched on a glass roofed mezzanine between the Southern and Southeastern sides of Victoria station, this brash, busy and decidedly unglamorous Wetherspoon bar has earned a Good Beer Guide listing for the range and quality of its cask beer. Guests from local brewers like By the Horns and Windsor & Eton, or other well respected suppliers like Adnams and Thornbridge, join regulars ESB, London Pride, Bombardier, Abbot and IPA on the row of handpumps. Otherwise, it has few other noteworthy assets besides its convenient location and gallery seating on both sides providing a bird’s eye view of the busy station. Indoor seating is packed tight, optimised for transient drinkers.
National Rail Underground Victoria Cycling LCN+ 5 38
 Sanctuary House Hotel, London SW1. Pic: Fuller’s. London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Westminster, Victoria and Pimlico
Traditional pub (Fuller’s)
33 Tothill Street SW1H 9LA
T 020 7799 4044 w www.sanctuaryhousehotel.co.uk f SanctuaryHouseHotel tw SancHouseHotel
Open 0800-2300 (2230 Sun). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beer 5 (Fuller’s) CM, Other beer 1 keg (Fuller’s), 15 bottles, Also 24 wines.
Food Pies and enhanced pub grub, Outdoor None, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Seasonal events.
Tucked away in a historic back street within easy reach of Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and St James’s Park, this smart but comfortable if slightly corporate place is worth knowing about as a well located stockist of Fuller’s beers, served in good condition under the supervision of a manager that holds the brewery’s Master Cellarman accreditation.
Chiswick, Discovery, ESB, London Pride and a seasonal are all present and correct on cask, while bottles include 1845, Bengal Lancer, Golden Pride and Vintage Ale, as well as more imports than usual including Budvar, Duvel, Pilsner Urquell and Singha. Staff aren’t always well informed about the beer though.
As part of the brewery’s Ale and Pie House mini-chain, the Sanctuary dishes up substantial if slightly overpriced hearty fare, with horseradish and red wine spiking the house steak and kidney special, and is also open for breakfast. Decor in the long corner space is recent but in traditionally woody style, with a pleasant area at the back complete with monastically themed stained glass. There’s a highly rated and very well sited 36 bedroom hotel attached, often patronised by groups of North American beer travellers who will find that as a drinking venue it’s considerably more conducive than the average hotel bar.
Pub trivia. The name refers to the nearby sanctuary of Westminster Abbey and the public spaces named after it, though the building originated as an early 20th century office block that has previously housed insurance and publishing firms.
National Rail Victoria Underground St James’s Park River Westminster Cycling LCN+ 6A, link to NCN 4, CS 8 Walking Jubilee Greenway, Jubilee Walkway, Diana Princess of Wales walk
 Electricity Showrooms, London N1 Shoreditch and Hoxton
Bar (Barworks)
39A Hoxton Square N1 6NN
T 020 7739 3939 w www.electricityshowrooms.com f electricityshowrooms tw electricityshow
Open 1200-2400 (0100 Fri-Sat). Children welcome until 1900.
Cask beer 2 (changing often London guests), Other beer 11 keg, 12 bottles, Also A few cocktails and wines, specialist spirits, tea and coffee.
Food Shortish enhanced pub grub and small plates menu, Outdoor Standing room on street, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Fri-Sat DJs, ocasional live music and theatre, functions, bar biOnelliards, pub games.
This big bar commanding the entrance to Hoxton Square from Old Street is already a piece of London’s social drinking history. It was built in the early 20th century, indeed as an electricity showroom, but as its surroundings transformed from one of the remaining old working class districts of central London into a playground of New British Artists, fashionistas and .com entrepreneurs in the 1990s, it became one of the new residents’ favourite haunts.
Relaunched a few years back, it’s now a less forbidding and more relaxed place, more pub-like though still popular with a youthful, trendy crowd and busy at weekends. The ironically kitsch decor, including a big gaudy neon peacock that lures customers downstairs to a lightbox dancefloor, is well done enough not to be tiresome and there are some secluded, comfortable spots to hide away.
Owner Barworks has been quick to recognise the increasing demand for interesting beer among a new audience of young Londoners and has strengthened its offer to match. The enthusiastic beer buyers at the Showrooms support local brewers – East London, London Fields and Redemption are often on handpump while a range of Camden Town and London Fields keg beers is also offered, alongside Thornbridge Jaipur and imports like Brooklyn and Paulaner.
Thornbridge supplies bottles too, alongside BrewDog, Dark Star, Icelandic brewer Einstöck, Flying Dog and Mexican craft brewer Red Pig. Food is essentially pub grub – burgers, fish and chips, veggie options like spinach, ricotta and aubergine rolls. One of Hoxton’s brighter sparks.
National Rail Underground Old Street Overground Hoxton Cycling LCN+ 9 10, link to 0
 Red Lion, Parliament Street, London SW1. Pic: Fuller’s. Westminster, Victoria and Pimlico
Traditional pub (Fuller’s) Regional heritage pub
48 Parliament Street SW1A 2NH
T 020 7930 5826 w redlionwestminster.co.uk
Open 1000-2300 (2100 Sun). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beer 5 (Fuller’s) CM, Other beer 1 keg, 5 bottles (Fuller’s), Also 17 wines, 12 whiskies.
Food Simple pub lunches, upmarket pub grub, Outdoor Tables on street, Wifi.
Mon comedy, monthly quiz, live music, functions.
Though the engraved glass claims allegiance to now defunct London brewery Taylor Walker, this old fashioned pub in the heart of Westminster’s government district has been a Fuller’s house since 2009 and is a good place to sample the Chiswick brewer’s beers in good condition within easy reach of several iconic sites. The slightly uncommon Chiswick Bitter is a constant alongside London Pride and Seafarers, with seasonals and specials like US influenced Wild River and Bengal Lancer among the bottles.
The interior of this long and narrow corner pub, all deep red and optimised for vertical drinking, is not as spectacular as the nearby St Stephens (p117) but still preserves Victorian features from a fin de siècle rebuild, including columns, glazed screens and a carved Renaissance-style bar back helpfully bearing the date 1900. There’s also a cellar bar and an upstairs restaurant with a slightly more sophisticated menu.
Pub trivia. As suggested by the location and the muted TV screening the Parliament Channel, the Red Lion is popular with parliamentary staff and a few politicians, with its own division bell. It’s also the closest pub to Downing Street, and once boasted it was the favoured drinking den of prime ministers, though the last one known to have drunk here was Edward Heath back in the 1970s. We doubt it’s changed much since.
Underground River Westminster Cycling LCN+ 6A, link to NCN 4 Walking Thames Path, link to Jubilee Greenway, Jubilee Walkway
 Whole Foods Market Kensington, London W8 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Kensington, Chelsea and Earls Court
Shop (Whole Foods Market)
63-97 Kensington High Street W8 5SE
T 020 7368 4500 w wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/kensington f WholeFoodsKensington tw WFM_Kensington
Open 0800 (1100 Sun)-2200 (1800 Sun). Children welcome.
Cask beer 1 (Redemption or local), Other beer 2 keg, 110 bottles, Also Wines.
Food Cheese, charcuterie and snacks, specialist groceries, food court elsewhere in store. Disabled toilet.
In the US, the numerous stores belonging to this Austin, Texas-based, green minded (and union hostile) supermarket chain are usually reliable sources of well priced craft beer, often from local producers. When the huge flagship London branch first opened in the prime site of the former Barkers department store in 2007, the beer choice was disappointing but clearly the management took note of the changing market and in 2011 it was expanded significantly.
Confusingly, it’s not all in one place. On the ground floor you can help yourself to a handful of draught beers in takeaway containers, including a London cask beer on handpump and changing kegs from Meantime or US brewers. Nearby is a chiller cabinet with a small selection of bottles, and a wine tasting bar where four changing bottled beers add variety alongside various snack plates.
In the basement is a much bigger selection of bottled beers, mainly better known brands but all solid stuff and at near-supermarket prices. There’s a good choice of Kernel and Meantime beers plus Anchor, BrewDog, Brooklyn, Flying Dog, Goose Island, St Peter’s, Schlenkerla, Schneider and the like. The odd more unusual supplier like Stroud from the UK or Fordham from the US might pop up too. Elsewhere is a vast range of specialist, deli and organic food and other groceries and an eclectic and keenly priced first floor food court in what has been described as “a Disney World of food”.
Underground High Street Kensington Cycling LCN+ 45, Walking Link to Jubilee Greenway, Princess Diana Memorial Walk
 The Queens Arms, London SW7 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Kensington, Chelsea and Earls Court
Contemporary pub (Castle/M&B)
30 Queens Gate Mews SW7 5QL
T 020 7823 9293 w www.thequeensarmskensington.co.uk
Open 1200-2300 (2230 Sun). Children welcome until 1900.
Cask beer 8 (Fuller’s, Sharp’s, 6 often unusual guests) Cask Marque, Other beer 6 keg, 5 bottles, Also 2 real ciders, 27 wines, a few specialist spirits.
Food Upmarket pub grub/gastro, Outdoor Standing area on mews, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Occasional big screen sport.
Tucked away in an achingly picturesque cobbled mews only a short step from the Albert Hall, Hyde Park and the Kensington museums, this friendly and cheerful pub with its distinctive rounded entrance, cream coloured walls and old wood panelling fits in perfectly with its surroundings. This is a seriously desirable part of town but not all the regulars are well heeled locals – students from Imperial College, concertgoers and more adventurous tourists pop by to enjoy an excellent lineup of cask ales that might include choices from Ilkley, Hawkshead, Kelham Island or Purity besides regulars London Pride and Doom Bar. Budweiser Budvar, Franziskaner wheat beer and Meantime London Pale are among the keg choices with Duvel and Worthington White Shield in bottles. One of the better pubs in a generally reliable chain.
Underground Gloucester Road, South Kensington, High Street Kensington Cycling LCN+ 45 Walking Link to Jubilee Greenway, Princess Diana Memorial Walk
 Holborn Whippet, London WC1 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Holborn and Legal London
Bar, specialist (Euston Tap)
25-29 Sicilian Avenue WC1A 2QH
T 020 3137 9937 w holbornwhippet.com f HolbornWhippet tw holbornwhippet
Open 1200-2300 (2330 Thu-Fri, closed Sun though may change in future). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beer 6 (often local or unusual guests), Other beer 10 keg, Also Some wines and specialist spirits.
Food Short burger and steak menu, Outdoor Some tables on street, Wifi.
Table football, functions and parties.
The owners of the Euston Tap expanded to this more central location in June 2012. While not as characterful as the Tap’s repurposed gatehouse, the site has its interest: it’s on Sicilian Avenue, a short, elegant and well preserved Italian-inspired pedestrianised shopping street of a type unusual in London, developed in 1910 and still something of a pleasant surprise in businesslike Holborn.
The Whippet presides over two conjoined units at one end of the street. Indoors is breezily but stylishly minimalist, with a bar area centred on a brick pillar from which cask and keg taps sprout, and an adjacent area with high tables. There’s also a small cellar bar available for private hire. Although more generously proportioned than the Tap, it’s still a squeeze, particularly as it’s regularly busy.
What packs them in is the range of beers from independent producers served by very knowledgeable staff in attractive surroundings. Aside from Bitburger as the house lager, all the lines rotate, with adventurous British brewers like Arbor, Bristol, Camden Town, Dark Star, Magic Rock, Oldershaw, Redemption and Thornbridge represented across both cask and keg taps.
Other kegs might come from the Czech Republic (Bernard), Belgium (Duvel), Germany (Hof, König, Weihenstephaner) or the USA (Dogfish Head, Sierra Nevada, Stone). There’s no room for a bottle fridge, and cask purists suspicious of the unusual dispensing arrangements will be reassured to know that air and not gas pressure is used.
Underground Holborn Cycling LCN+ 6 39 Walking Jubilee Walkway
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London’s Best Beer  The fully updated 3rd edition of my essential award-winning guide to London’s vibrant beer scene is available now from CAMRA Books. Read more here.
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