SOHO!

I used capital letters for SOHO as it apparently comes from a hunting cry (History of London).

OK, a wee variation from recent blogs recording short pub crawls close to Covent Garden from Charing Cross Station to Oxford Street/Tottenham Court Road recently, with 4 pubs we've visited in/close by Soho. Plus, of course, our favourite starter at The Harp, 47 Chandos Place WC2N 4HS (website). I have written about this before, so the next paragraph may be superfluous for you, but there has been a change regarding staff, with new manager Steve, coming in for Paul who recently retired. And many thanks to Steve for noticing us, and others, waiting outside on Good Friday, when he was originally going to open at 12.00 instead of the usual 11.00, yet decided to let us in, including a young German lad who was flying home later in the day. 👍

This pub has been around since 1805, originally called the Welsh Harp, changing its name when Irish lass Binnie Walsh took it over in 1995. She sold it to Fuller's in 2014, after turning it into an excellent free house (my older blog), and good for them for keeping it a virtual 'free house' still; the only difference being London Pride is now available regularly. Indeed, Dark Star APA and Hophead are still regular ales (perhaps their sales influential in Fuller's buying the pub) as is Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter, plus guest ales too. The building was constructed in the 18th century, but a pub had been on the site for many years previous. As far as I can find out, the building itself isn't 'Listed' although next door is, as are the lampposts in Chandos Place!

As usual our first pints of the day at the Harp were excellent, and from Sheffield brewery Neepsend (website), who brew some excellent ales, as I have written about before when visiting Sheffield. This was their 5.2% Hodag, an American Pale Ale brewed with Citra (hopslist), Mosaic (hopslist), Columbus (hopslist) and Centennial (hopslist) hops, and we got what you'd expect from those hops. Big fruity aroma, mango and grapefruit in particular, similar with taste, plenty of tropical and citrus fruit flavours coming through, with a crisp dry bitter finish, excellent! 👍

Chatting with Steve the manager, and I blame Paul for this as he asked for a taste, then he bought a half for me too. From Siren Craft Brew of Wokingham (website), their 6.5% Breakfast Stout Broken Dream, brewed with Apollo hops (hopslist) and with coffee and lactose, meaning a rich sweet full bodied chocolatey stout with hints of coffee, with the hops ensuring it not being too sickly with a slightly bitter finish, indeed, pretty damn good. Rare to get a cask Siren beer, I've drunk more of their stouts in particular from cans, and this was pretty darn good too! 👌

Repeating myself for the next pub, but we turned left out of The Harp, then left up Bedfordbury, walked to the end and turned right, then turned left very soon onto Garrick Street, followed this up to the 6 exit junction, taking the second exit on the left, Cranbourn Street, up to Charing Cross Road. Turn right to quickly find, on your right, The Porcupine, 48 Charing Cross Road WC2H 0BS, by Leicester Square tube station (website). An inn/pub has been on this site since 1725, when the original address was 1 Castle Street, before Charing Cross Road was built in the 1870s, the pub was then rebuilt in 1880. 

Here we drank an ale that was a collaboration between Farnham based Hogs Back Brewery (website) and London based Mondo Brewing Company (website), their 3.8% Juliet Pale Ale, brewed to celebrate International Women's Day (website). Brewed with Cascade (hopslist), Citra (hopslist) and Hallertau Blanc (hopslist) hops, and, as you'd expect, light and fruity, with hints of grapefruit, gooseberries, and forest fruits, not bad at all.

On leaving we crossed Charing Cross Road to Little Newport Street, then soon turning right off here into Newport Place, leading to Gerrard Place, then left onto Shaftesbury Avenue, and turning second right and up Dean Street. On the corner with Bateman Street on the right is The Crown & Two Chairmen, 31-32 Dean Street W1D 3SB (website). The original pub dates back to 1736 and was then called just the Crown, probably changing its name towards the beginning of the 19th century, I can't find out the exact year, but we know the pub was rebuilt in 1929.

Here I drank Bass Pale Ale or Draught Bass as it's more commonly called these days (4.4%), brewed at Marston's old brewery in Burton, which is now owned by Carlsberg, for AB-InBev, confused? This sort of thing can happen when big breweries buy up other breweries, although this is one of the weirdest, the owner of a brand, an enormous international company, having its beer brewed by another enormous international competitor! Couldn't make it up. 😲 I probably first drank Bass poured straight from the barrel (gravity fed) about 40 years ago at the Dolphin Hotel in Plymouth (old blog), but it may have been before that at The Plume of Feathers in Princetown, in the middle of Dartmoor (website), who used to serve it straight from the cask too.

The red triangle of Bass was the first registered trademark way back on the 1st of January 1876 (IPO), indeed it was first brewed in Burton-on-Trent as far back as 1777, Bass, it does have some history! So, Draught Bass (4.4%) is brewed with English hops Challenger (hopslist) and Golding (hopslist), producing an amber, slightly malty, decent traditional best bitter. Bottled it has been close to what an original IPA would have been, destined to travel, but not quite as strong on draught, but bottled it has been between 6.0 and 8.0% mostly since its inception.

We then came out left, returning down Dean Street, but turned next left onto Old Compton Street and then second right onto Greek Street where, on the left, we reached The Coach & Horses, 29 Greek Street, W1D 5DH (website). This Grade II Listed building dates back to 1840, and is claimed to be "Soho's Most Famous Pub" and historically a drinking establishment for writers, artists and poets; indeed, a friend reminded me soon after I originally posted this photograph on social media, that it was where folk from the satirical magazine Private Eye had their famous fortnightly lunches, cheers Stephen! 🍷🍸🍻

Here we drank, from near the South Devon coast and Salcombe Brewery (website), their 4.2% Gold, brewed with Amarillo (hopslist), Chinook (hopslist) and Citra (hopslist) hops. A pale straw coloured ale, with those hops providing a big fruity aroma and taste, citrus with grapefruit mostly and a hint of orange, and more subtle tropical fruits, mango, melon, peach and apricot, with a dry refreshing gently bitter finish, nice one. 😊

We came out to the left, and virtually behind The Coach & Horses, left and left in effect, is The Spice of Life, yet another new pub from McMullen & Sons, a brewery I only discovered last year (blog), despite their existence for 200 years! Anyway, The Spice of Life, 6 Moor Street W1D 5NA (website) was built around 1759, originally called The George, then The George and Thirteen Cantons by 1892, then The Scots Hoose, with a Scottish landlord until the 1970s. The name changed to The Spice of Life in the 1970s, or maybe 1980 when it became a McMullen's pub. It has recently had a rather superb refurbishment with a resplendent interior.

Here I drank their own 4.3% The Spice of Life Bitter, brewed by McMullen's of Hertfordshire, of course (website). Like with the Nag's Head Bitter recently imbibed (blog), an educated guess still suggests this is their Country Best Bitter, as it's the only beer they regularly brew at that strength. 😉 Brewed with Fuggle (hopslist), Progress (hopslist) and Bramling Cross (hopslist) hops, producing a very decent traditional best bitter indeed. 👍

From here you can either go back onto Charing Cross Road and up to Oxford Street and the Flying Horse (blog), or click on Covent Garden in the Labels, which will take you back to pubs I've already reviewed in Covent Garden close by, or wait for me to do more wandering around Soho, or just wander around and see what you can find yourself, there are plenty more pubs in the area believe me! Whatever, enjoy yourselves and have fun folks, cheers m'dears! 🍺

Drinking around Covent Garden, London.

OK, this blog records a wee wander we had between Charing Cross Station and Oxford Street/Tottenham Court Road recently, with 5 pubs we visited in-between, although we could have visited many more on another day, this is a good selection for the few hours we had available. To reach The Harp, 47 Chandos Place WC2N 4HS (website), our first port of call, we walked straight out of Charing Cross Station and across The Strand to a short pedestrianised area up to Adelaide Street with The Harp directly in front of you a couple of minutes walk away.

It is known that this pub has been around since 1805 and was originally called the 'Welsh Harp' - it changed its name when Irish woman Binnie Walsh took it over in 1995, later selling it to Fuller's in 2014, after turning it into an excellent freehouse (my older blog), and good for them for keeping it a virtual freehouse still; London Pride is now available regularly. Indeed, Dark Star APA and Hophead are still available (perhaps an influence in Fuller's buying the pub) as is Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter, and a few other guest ales too! The building is from the 18th century, but most probably a pub was on the site for many years previous. As far as I can find out, the building itself isn't 'Listed' although next door is, as are the lampposts in Chandos Place!

Excellent choice of ales available here; although all these pubs appear to be charging £7 plus a pint! {I will be sharing information soon on pubs up int' North where you can buy your ales for at least £2 a pint less in places!} Anyway, my favourite ale of the day was imbibed here, unsurprisingly from one of my favourite breweries, the excellent Oakham Ales (website), their 4.6% Bishops Farewell, brewed with Cascade hops from the USA (hopslist) and English Challenger hops (hopslist). This is a pale golden 'premium' ale full of flavour, decent strength yet light and so easy to knock back, fruity, indeed zesty citrus, but hoppy too, pretty damn good!

We turned left out of The Harp, then left again up Bedfordbury, walked to the end and turned right where immediately on your right is The White Swan, 14 New Row WC2N 4LF (website), a Nicholson's Hostelry. This is a Grade II Listed 17th century building, tastefully refurbished by Nicholson's after they bought it, reopening in 2012. And that's it for my being able to take photographs of the exteriors on this day without members of the public included, busy busy! 😒

I have become increasingly frustrated with Nicholson's who have been reducing the ales available in their pubs, notably cask ales from small local breweries. But I was very happy to have a pint of this ale from Titanic Brewery of Stoke-on-Trent (website), okay, not local, but another decent brewery indeed, who's brewery tap, The Bulls Head in Burslem, I have written about on my older blog. Anyway, their 4.9% Plum Porter is pretty special as ever, brewed with a "delicate blend of classic hops" which is really teasing us, although I do believe this includes East Kent Golding hops (hopslist), and the beer does what it says on the label basically, dark and fruity, nice one... Oh yes, and it annoys me when staff can't be arsed to put a pumpclip on straight, many seen on this day were crooked! Glad I got that off my chest... 😉

From here, we turned right out of the pub, virtually opposite turned left on to Garrick Street, and right again at the first turning into Floral Street, we walked along and on the corner opposite at the junction with James Street, is The Nag's Head, 10 James Street WC2E 8BT (website). The Nag's Head is a Grade II Listed pub, which was erected in 1900, with a pub called that name at the address since "at least the 1670s." This is my second McMullen's pub ever, after visiting another White Swan recently (blog), despite the Nag's Head being a McMullen's pub since 1927! What have I been doing all these years?!? 😕

I drank their own 4.3% Nag's Head Bitter, brewed by McMullen's of Hertfordshire, of course (website), an educated guess says this is their Country Best Bitter, as it's the only beer they regularly brew at that strength. 😉 Brewed with Fuggle (hopslist), Progress (hopslist) and Bramling Cross (hopslist) hops, producing a very decent traditional best bitter indeed. 👍

To reach our penultimate pub, we turned right out of the Nag's Head, walked along James Street, turned right at the end onto Long Acre, and followed this down to Endell Street where we turned left up to the end and reached the corner pub at High Holborn, Craft Beer Company, 168 High Holborn WC1V 7AA (website). This is a modern built pub (1961), bought by the company in 2014, and here we were met with a pretty decent choice of cask ales and crafty keg beers!

Here we drank, from East Sussex, Lakedown Brewing Company (website) Sussex Pale (4.2%), and their beers seem to improve every time I taste them, an improving brewery indeed. Brewed with English hops Cascade (British Hops) and Ernest (British Hops), this ale brings an English twist to traditional APAs. Notable mandarin citrus in aroma, but gentle fruitiness to taste, easy bitterness to finish and really quite refreshing, will be a great summer ale methinks. 😎

Image thanks to Wikipedia

Finally, we crossed the road, and down Dyott Street opposite to New Oxford Street, where we turned left up to the junction with Tottenham Court Road. Where, just after on the right hand side, and opposite the Tottenham Court Road Tube station entrance is the last surviving pub, apparently, in Oxford Street, The Flying Horse, 6 Oxford Street W1D 1AN (website). Another Grade II Listed public house, built in 1892/93 in a Flemish Renaissance style on the site of an older pub with a history dating from at least 1790, and it does have quite a grand interior! 

It is another Nicholson's pub, so a wee bit uninteresting ale-wise, but I did drink their own Nicholson's Pale Ale (4.0%), brewed for them by Cornish brewery St Austell (website), which ain't too bad! Brewed with English hops Fuggle (hopslist) and East Kent Golding (hopslist), and Australian Galaxy hops (hopslist), so citrus and tropical fruits in the taste, pale, dry and bitter, could do with being a bit more bitterness for me, but very easy to drink, not bad at all.

I have quite a lot to write up to come, please be patient with me... Cheers m'dears! 😁

McMullen & Sons Brewery - Update...

The other week I visited a McMullen's pub for the first time, the White Swan in Pimlico, London (blog) and in that blog I suggested I'd never heard of McMullen & Sons before... Well, I was in my local, the Dolphin Inn in Hastings (website) a couple of days ago, a pub I have written about many times (eg blog) and was chatting to (landlord) Mark about drinking Mac's IPA at the White Swan, and he said, go and have a look round the other end of the pub, and what should appear?!? Yes, up on the wall is the above framed award to McMullen & Sons Ltd for 'bottled ale' at the Brewers' Exhibition in London in 1930, where 800 beers were entered in total!

And I remembered this Diploma so well, and no idea why the brewer's name had slipped my memory, indeed, they've had this up on a wall in the Dolphin since before I first visited the pub over 14 years ago, until a few years ago it was up on the wall around the other end of the pub where I mostly frequent, doh! 😕 So, maybe I should write about the Brewery...

Incidentally, McMullen's, or informally, Mac's, do post on social media (eg facebook), but what about their history, I hear you ask!?! Well, they've been brewing since 1827 when it all started with Peter McMullen, they have had a number of different breweries in Hertford since then, with the present modern brewery set up in 2006, but their water supply, or liquor, has been sourced from the same chalk aquifer since 1891 (website). The brewery is still in the McMullen family (6th generation), and I do like a real family run brewery! In 1827 they were one of a dozen breweries in Hertford, but, nearly 200 years later, they are the sole survivor, quality Mac's. 👍

If you would like to know more, go to their website, cheers folks! 🍻

London - Victoria - Pimlico.

I could have entitled this blog just Pimlico, or Vauxhall Bridge Road, which I may have done if we had included a fourth pub on the day (the Jugged Hare), but for some reason I forget we didn't go there; another time! Anyhow, first up and very close to Victoria Station, was the Victoria Taps, 27 Gillingham Street SW1V 1HP (website), a Stonegate pub that's open from 10.00 every day of the week (although due to the terms of its licence you can't buy alcohol before 12.00 on Sundays), anyhow our first stop as we were there before 11.00 on Saturdays; we've been back.😉

Each time we've gone for the Fuller's London Pride (4.1%) to drink, which I've mentioned many times in blogs, but never really reviewed, I just know that when it's in form it's pretty good, but it does need to be sold quickly as it doesn't last too long in opened casks (cellar experience there folks). Brewed with English hops Target (hopslist), Northdown (hopslist), Challenger (hopslist) and East Kent Golding (hopslist), and I'd describe it as a slightly malty and bitter traditional session bitter. CAMRA (website) describe it thus: "Aromas of malt and citrus. The malty sweetness is balanced by spicy bitter hops with orange, apricot, sultanas and toffee." Oh yes, and basic bacon sandwiches are available at just £4 each before noon!

We then walked towards Vauxhall Bridge and close to it, we stopped at a McMullen's pub (never visited or drank their ales before! McMullen's website) the White Swan, 14 Vauxhall Bridge Road SW1V 2SA (website), indeed, before my first visit to the Taps I'd never visited either of these first 2 pubs before, and I used to work very close by in my yoof! The White Swan has been trading as a pub since 1759, more recently Macs took it over from Punch Taverns in 2012, and it had previously been a Watney's pub since the 1970s, and then a Scottish & Newcastle pub.

Here, and please take note that I'd never even heard of this brewery from Hertford before, despite them being 200 years old, 😕 I drank their Mac's IPA, a 4.8% East India Pale Ale. The IPA has its origins back in 1840 and is now brewed with Progress (hopslist) and Brambling/Bramling Cross (hopslist) again, both English hops, meaning it is a more traditional English style IPA rather than an APA. Consequently, it's a darker amber/mahogany colour with a slightly sweet malty flavour and with a hint of citrus only, and was not bad at all, more please! 😁

Nearer to Pimlico tube station is the Cask Pub & Kitchen, 6 Charlwood Street SW1V 2EE, a pub I have visited and written about before on my old Beermeister blog, and which has been trading in a modern building since 2009, being "London's first craft beer focussed pub" (website). The building is Grade II Listed, I kid you not, and well, have a read of London Drinker for more!

A BIG choice from 12 handpumps, and the bar staff were very knowledgeable and friendly indeed, and we went for the Dorking Brewery (website) Siris Citrus Pale (4.2%), brewed to celebrate International Women's Day 2025. It is named after the Mesopotanium Goddess of beer Siris, the suggested sister of Ninkasi, the Sumerian Goddess of Beer, and who I have written about before (blog). The difference between Sumeria and Mesopotania is described in this YouTube Video, Sumerians were Mesopotaniums, and they were situated in what is now Iraq, these were old civilizations indeed, invented the wheel amongst many other things!

Back to the ale! Siris Citrus Pale is a pale golden bitter, apparently with added grapefruit and lime zest, consequently it is packed with citrus flavours. I'd love to say Citra hops were used, but I can't find details of the hops used anywhere, although the brewery does use a wide range of hops from the USA including Citra and Chinook. Whatever, this was a delightful refreshing ale!

I will visit the Jugged Hare sometime (website), maybe next season, cheers!🍻