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Where to go for a beer in London - - ?

Axel Lambert

18:52 / 05.03.04

I'm in London in April-May, but I'm not sure where to go and just hang out. Can you recommend any nice pubs/winebars/anything?

Axel Lambert

19:28 / 05.03.04

I mean, like your favourite places that only you know of, and that I, being a tourist, would surely miss.

Alex's Grandma

19:38 / 05.03.04

It really depends on what sort of place you're into. Please advise.

Plus, you do know about the licensing laws, right ?

Axel Lambert

19:50 / 05.03.04

I'm really just after a nice place to have a drink before going to, say, a consert. Or after. I stay at a hotel in Bloomsbury, but I'm interested in any place anywhere really.

Axel Lambert

19:52 / 05.03.04

Licensing laws, it that that they close at 11?

Alex's Grandma

21:01 / 05.03.04

Yep. The 11 o'clock thing pisses everyone off. I mean this is supposed to be one of THE great cities, and yet the lovely old nanny state still seems to think we should all be in bed by half past Eleven.

Anyway, as far as pubs go, are you looking for the kind of place where the natives are friendly, or just somewhere to sit around and watch the world go by ?

If it's the former, you're better off in a club - everyone's usually drunk or stoned enough by then to be a bit more outgoing.

And if it's the latter, well virtually anywhere, but unless you've got ages, there's really no need to go south of the Thames

ONLY NICE THINGS

22:12 / 05.03.04

Apart from the NFT bar, the George, the RFH, the Archduke, the crown and Greyhound....

But anyway.

Garlic and Shots on Frith Street is fun, although they might eat you. Lab just down the road in Old Compton Street does half-decent cocktails. The Pimlico Wine Vaults in...erm... Pimlico is happy on the first floor, and just plain wrong in the basement. Barbelith haunts include the Marquis of Granby and the Chandos (The Strand), the Plough (Holborn), the Princess Louise (Holborn), the Jorene Celeste (Camden/Kentish Town) and the Ruby Lounge (Waterloo)... none of these are glorious, but they pass the time pleasantly enough.

Alex's Grandma

22:46 / 05.03.04

T.H.O.T.S.

The Jorene Celestse is my local, oddly enough. So if you guys are ever around...

And yeah, fair enough, I was being a bit flippant about south of the river

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

07:24 / 06.03.04

Get the fuck out of the Bloomsbury area... Hackney, for example, is chock-full of pubs that open late.

Ganesh

08:36 / 06.03.04

Or get the fuck out of England altogether and go to Scotland instead. The licensing laws are much more civilised.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:00 / 06.03.04

My God, the amount of times I've considered emigrating...

sleazenation

12:40 / 06.03.04

its probably easier to ask about where not to get a beer

Other places not yet mentioned
The Foundry in uber-trendy Old Street/Hoxton
The market porter in london bridge
The white hart on Cornwall street
...in many ways the bars south of the river are a much more pleasent drinking experience because so many people seem to have a strange aversion to anything not north london...

On the subject of the Jorene Celeste, it used to be a lot better than it is now after the change in managment - its been repainted in bland, light colours, its lost its great thai menu.

Char Aina

12:46 / 06.03.04

that wee place, spanish pub off oxford street. just up from tottenham court road, on the other side. cant remember what it's caled.

it has a great wee juke box, and if you went with three or four friends you'd feel like you owned the upstairs.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:55 / 06.03.04

Is that Bradleys Spanish Bar, toksik? That is nice, if tiny...

Bear

14:03 / 06.03.04

Yeah the little Spanish place is nice, everyone seems to know about it but it's never really too busy... a vinyl jukebox, don't get many of them anymore..

What the name is the huge Spanish bar that seems to stay open forever and who was I there with a few months ago??

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:16 / 06.03.04

There's also The Plough, in Museum Street opposite the entrance to the British Museum. And if you go to Buckingham Palace and claim to be a foreign dictator Queen Betsy will give you a drink from her secret stash.

Axel Lambert

15:20 / 06.03.04

Hey, thanks for the suggestions! I remember a sort of wine bar on Neal street with a vegetarian menu, in a basement of sorts. Do you know what I'm talking about? Is it still there? Haven't been there in -- eight years perhaps.

Any chance of a barbelith pub meet 29 april-7 may?!

Goodness Gracious Meme

21:42 / 06.03.04

The Ruby Lounge would be my pick of the barbiebars. That or the Foundry, where we've met a few times.

a few non-central drinkeries:

Otherwise: Loungelover, Hackney - poncy, expensive but fantastic decor and some of the best champagne cocktails *ever*. but thay may be a me thing.

Does Charlie Wrights still exist, anyone, that's an old favourite of mine, round old street/hoxton way.

The Windsor Castle, Notting Hill, is a lovely if tiny pub.

Brixton has some goodies: The Telegraph, The William IV, SW9

oh, and I love the French House and Red Lion in Soho, but they're a bit seedy for some.

Goodness Gracious Meme

22:25 / 06.03.04

and i'm sure (speaking for the londonlith, of which i'm not really a member) some barbe-drinking action can easily be sorted.

Smoothly

23:29 / 06.03.04

Do you mean Freud's, Harry?

Char Aina

04:26 / 07.03.04

you might want to try the ten bells in spittalfields too.

Regrettable Juvenilia

19:34 / 07.03.04

Nah, the Golden Hart round the corner is nicer, even if Alan Moore never put it in a comic.

_Boboss

19:53 / 07.03.04

yes don't go to the ten bells it's blatantly one of the world's rankest pubs - if in the east end try the queen victoria, not far from walford tube and rarely a dull moment.

you should ignore any of the pubs offered in this thread and just find one near where you happen to be thirsty. there's no way the people on a single messageboard will be able to offer knowledge on even a significant fraction of potential good london boozers. or bad ones, which for a drop or two are really just as good.

Axel Lambert

21:25 / 07.03.04

Freud's - yeah! So it's still there then. I remember it as a nice place, but then again this was a long way back. Thanks, Smoothly.

Smoothly

10:33 / 08.03.04

It's hardly changed at all, Harry. A little busier these days, perhaps, but still an oasis in the daytime.
You might also like Oporto just round the corner on Endell Street. It's not what it once was (it even has a *sign* now), but it's still more about the locals than tourists.
And since we're in the area, The Cross Keys - halfway down Endell St - is probably worth a mention. Maybe not to everyone's taste, but it's a proper pub, with a genuinely diverse clientele. Definitely worth a look.

Brigade du jour

00:14 / 09.03.04

West End-wise I recommend The Porcupine on Charing Cross Road, right next to Leicester Sq tube, but which exit (ah, they are legion!)? Well, the one on Charing Cross Road. East side. To the left of Garfunkel's. As you look at it. I think. Fuck, I'm confused now.

East End-wise I recommend The Golden Fleece on Capel Road, round the corner from Manor Park station. It's my new local, and the first one out of my six addresses in London that doesn't threaten to kill me on entry. In fact, it's really friendly and kind of quiet, but hey! When I'm there it livens up a bit, sho' nuff! But anyway, most of the pubs in the East are shite or at least carry vague homicidal whiffs, so I'd go quite far out of my way to go here if I were you.

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