Acceptable or even GOOD pubs in London city centre?

this is probably a long shot, especially at this time of year if the weather is good, but are there any pubs nearish Liverpool St that will be:

a) fairly quiet on a Friday night (!) - i.e. not packed and music not booming loud
b) dog-friendly

I'm supposed to be meeting up with one of my best friends who I haven't seen for 6 months and we live on opposite sides of London, so London is the best place for us to meet up without one of us having a long train journey, but my friend's husband is out of town this weekend and their dog gets anxious if she's left at home alone. we might just reschedule but both of us are busy at the moment and this Friday was the only day we could both do for several weeks

Maybe try the dear old Artillery Arms? I don't think you'll find anywhere particularly quiet around there, not that I know of, anyway. If I were you I'd be hoping the weather's good because that will draw a bunch of people out onto the street to complement their Friday night beer with the fine bouquet of taxi fumes.

I was about to recommend The Water Poet because I know I've seen dogs there (the front might be quiet enough) but it's closed permanently. Boooo!

Pride of Spitalfields

I was wondering if they let dogs in Pride since they have cat(s). And it's pretty small inside.

I would also say meet at Bedales Wine in Spitalfields Market. The have seating outside the main store in the part that should allow dogs.

The Artillery Arms is really close to where I work, so that would be a plus, except I'm working from home that day and coming into London after work, but I know where it is so that is an advantage for me at least

thanks all

You probably know better than I do about how rammed it gets on a Friday night, in that case; whatpub says the Artillery's dog friendly for whatever that's worth. I haven't been to Spitalfields on a Friday in ages, and that's partly because my perception is that everywhere gets unpleasantly busy unnecessarily early.)

not really, I never go there, and I usually work from home on Fridays! but there is another pub closer to my office that I have been to on Fridays that is usually not that busy so we can always go there if the Artillery is no good

Any nice pubs around Blackfriars?

The Black Friar is worth seeing, if only once. https://pubheritage.camra.org.uk/pubs/41

the black friar is fine. and i was always intrigued its exterior even when i’d never been in.

It's nearer Cannon St. but The Banker is decent (after the initial post-work rush at least) with actual river views from inside

I used to work around there and as a result I’m fond of a few of the ordinary pubs, just alright ordinary places to go and have a beer - the St Brides Tavern and the Cockpit both spring to mind. The Black Friar is an amazing one-off that may be better to look at than to use but I love it.

Go very much west of New Bridge Street and you’ll be drinking next to lawyers.

I'll pass on that.

Thanks for the recommends!

I should know this but I'm just no good at North London. Where's good for a drink before The Roundhouse on Saturday? Ideally dodging a bit of the crowd, but I don't expect miracles.

The Queen’s, the Engineer, the Pembroke and the Lansdowne - all good pubs in Primrose Hill. All 10-15 minutes’ walk away from the venue and unlikely to be full of pre-gig drinkers. All with decent food if you need to eat, too.

Perfect - thank you Suzy

What's a good gastropub in the Kings Cross area?

Tamil Prince, a little way into Barnsbury but not far from King’s Cross at all.

Never seen much detail about what the actual deal is with Sam Smith's before - only knew the usual bits and pieces & treated the pubs as a largely happy mystery. This is fascinating.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/dec/19/humphreys-world-how-the-samuel-smith-beer-baron-built-britains-strangest-pub-chain

Their London pubs are looked after by the son rather than the old man, AIUI, so none of them have been closed, but prices have gone up crazily in the last decade.

Absolutely, the days of four pints for a tenner are long gone.

I may be wrong but I tend to assume the London ones don't really enforce the no-swearing or mobile phone rules. I haven't been loudly playing TikToks but there are a couple of beautiful Sam Smiths pubs in London, like the Angel near Rotherhithe, and fairly sure I sat in them reading on my phone and nothing happened.

yeah that's my experience. never seen any enforcement in the city but vibe is usually a lot better than non smiths in central.

the bricklayers arms is a reliable one that has come in handy a few times this year

This pub looks really nice.

https://www.thesekforde.com

used to go to the rising sun near barbican on fridays as some friends worked near there, was p nice.

i feel like the drinks are now not cheap enough to make a huge difference but haven't been in one in a little while, so not sure.

xpost it is a nice pub for sure, friend had his 40th there.

The Sekforde currently threatened with closure because of complaints about noise from one particular tireless local resident, I believe.

It used to be my work local about ten years ago, it looks like it has been done up since

(xp) Not Bobby Gillespie again is it?

The Sekforde currently threatened with closure because of complaints about noise from one particular tireless local resident, I believe.

― fetter, Thursday, 19 December 2024 bookmarkflaglink

They are doing a Marx reading group from the 13th Jan, which is how I found out about it.

Even more reason to shut it down.

Noisy buggers these Marxists.

read that earlier; atypically great Guardian article

Favourite central pub for a few years now is Sutton Arms (no The, importantly), Clerkenwell.

So this is apparently Sam Smith boss' daughter

Britain's most extraordinary homes: Maude Smith's handmade haven https://t.co/Hh9HPhUcSt pic.twitter.com/d0SLiuDwLi

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) October 3, 2019

Yeah I enjoy the Sutton Arms. Good beer and a friendly atmosphere. They just took over the Kings Arms in Bethnal Green also, a decent pub which they'll hopefully improve.

whoa that Sam Smith article is bonkers

funnily enough my friend and i were in the old cheshire cheese just this weekend and were discussing how weird he is tho we didn’t know how bad it had got. the Lister’s crisps *were* really good tho. #yorkshirepotatoes

sam smiths beer is pretty good tbh imo

It's sold in the US as fancy craft beer which was always so weird to me since it's the cheap beer here but I always thought it was pretty good too.

Reluctant vote for "it's piss" here

Long time since I've been in one though, maybe my palate was youthful and unrefined

https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/noise-complaints-killing-londons-pubs/

Looks like Sekforde is done.

what a depressing read.

I find it depressing that this is happening but the figures are miniscule, 1% of pubs subjected to it. Also who's to say why - the article suggests it's class-related but I wouldn't say too many of the areas it mentions are newly well off, ergo maybe it's more to do with changing habits or attitudes.

Don't disagree this is shit for the pubs involved just thankfully doesn't look like it's too many.

@Sekforde just now. What a lovely place.

A friend had his 40th there, lovely pub. Not sure why so many brilliant London pubs all live in the slightly east outer edge of the centre, from Bloomsbury out, but it's defo a thing. Maybe older places have managed to survive based on the work crowd in those areas or something.

In Deptford's Dog & Bell right now and due to Belgian beer and roast I'm obliged to say that this is also fantastic

As the main pub thread: https://thefencecapitalletter.substack.com/p/capital-letter-4

I hope you approve of Jimmy McIntosh.

Don't know him