sam smith's

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this is the thread where we sing the praises of sam smith's pubs. i think i have only been to six of them: the cock, glasshouse stores, blue posts, angel, princess louise, and err one whose name has temporarily slipped my mind in holburn.

anyway - sam smith's bitter! ayingerbrau!! sing your praises and name yr fave sam smith's pubs and drinks!!!

― toby, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

also whoever came up with "pass the ayingerbrau part II" deserves a medal!!

― toby, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Jack Daniels and Coke! Hooray!

― jel --, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

AKA Happy Shopper pubs. I am a known afficianado of Sam Smith's especially in central London. They get a lot more right than they get wrong (though they do get somethings terribly wrong). ALl Sam Smith's have two rooms at least with different types of slooring and seating which at least harkens back to the old days.

― Pete, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the fitzroy tavern! Sovereign bitter! mmmm i wish i was at the fitzroy now supping a lovely pint...

― katie, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Is the Fitz a SS pub? Anyway Katie you are so wrong, it is a HORRIBLE pub always rammed to the gills with meeja wankers.

I quite like the Bricklayers (when it is not playing Radiohead on a loop and running out of vodka at 6pm, useless bastards).And the Posts (partly cos it is very close to my work). Their own brand cola is surprisingly nice.

― Emma, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh oh oh and those poppadum crisps they have are bloody gorgeous.

― Emma, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the fitz IS sam smiths, and is regularly rammed to the gills with doctor who fans.

― Alan T, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Haha you alcoholics talking about your pubs, us teetotallers wouldn't know about the beautiful Blue Posts, upstairs and downstairs both very palatable, or the Glasshouse Stores and it's bar billiards table which I am yet to play - oh and their bitter, and nut brown ale, and Sam Smiths own brand cola which works SO WELL with rum... *sob*

― Sarah, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

*sigh* emma you have a point, it's just that i always forget about the meedja wankers and hearken back to the glory days of 3 years ago when we used to go there before gigs or after shopping (or when hungover on a saturday morning, hahaha). OK i nominate the glasshouse stores then as it is the only pubbe in existence big enough to accomodate ILE on FAP nights!

― katie, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sam Smith's Extra Stout is gorgeous stuff. The Oatmeal Stout (in bottles) is good stuff too. Taddy Porter is pretty vile. The Old Brewery Bitter is not to my taste and as I'm not really a lager drinker I can't really comment on Ayingerbrau, apart from to say it is Classic on account of its Bavarian Mang on the pump, which has got to be one of the most stereotypical advertising images ever. He's complete with lederhosen, hat with feather and of course he's a chubby fella with a 'stache. He has a backdrop of snow capped mountains, natch. Funny how there are two brewers in Tadcaster both called Smith, innit?

― MarkH, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mmmm. I could murder a pint of Old Brewery Pale Ale now. And a big variety plate of English cheeses like they used to sell in the Cock (which *hasn't* got two rooms IIRC).

Best pubs: the Fitzroy of four years ago was great, but is now full of new media wankers all the time owing to the dot.com crash leaving them too broke to drink anywhere else. John Snow suffers from the same problem. Upstairs at the Blue Posts is nice, as is the Glasshouse. I'm really surprised no-ones mentioned the Cheshire Cheese yet.

― RickyT, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Alright then. The Cheshire Cheese is a great pub innit?

― Emma, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Is that the fleet street SS pub?

― Alan T, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I liked the Glasshouse Stores because it reminded me of the shady pubs in Dublin I drank in when I was underage. Also the beer is nice aswell as cheap.

What pubs are good for POOL? Preferably in the Forest Gate area, I love playing frisby on Wanstead Flats but my muscles seize up from running so I think a different sport is in order.

― Ronan, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Alan: yes. It has lots of nooks & crannies I believe. V. nice.

― Emma, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the cock has an upstairs - does that count?

― toby, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

their oatmeal stout & nut brown ale are GREAT - stop making me want to drink!! it's 6.30 am here!!

― geeta, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hang on, isn't the Cock the dodgy one round the back of Oxford St? It is very near where I work, it's a bit crap.

― Emma, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I must say that I choose the Three Goats Heads (the only SS pub here in Oxford) for the aforementioned stout and its location rather than any positive attributes of the pub itself. It is a distinctive place however. There are two bars, although the upstairs one is not always open. Upstairs: narrow, wood-pannelled with very strange, quasi- classical pillars painted red, blue and gols and apparently for decoration only. It is rarely full, definitely the place for catching last orders after the cinema or theatre, certainly not the place to spend an entire evening. Downstairs (the basement): reached via spiral stone stairs which are very easy to fall down. Used to have pics of politicians thru the ages on the walls (including caricatures of Gladstone & Disraeli and a very worried looking Jeremy Thorpe). Now it has schematic drawings of the furniture & fittings in the pub itslef instead. The two bars necessitate a dumb waiter which has a large metal door on it. Lots of little nooks and crannies. Green tiles on the walls. They do nice nachos.

― MarkH, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

no no emma the cock is great!! i will be drinking there in 7hrs... actually ok it is a bit rub but it is v conveniently situated. most rub thing about it is that you get kicked out of the upstairs bar at 10 and there are never any seats downstairs.

― toby, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Angel in the Fields on Marylebone High St is a good one, as is the Champion (both rocking the stained glass tip). Poss. worst Smiths pub in London = Captain Kidd in Wapping, redeemed by its delightful riverside situation (glorious views of sunny Rotherhithe etc).

The bottled stout is better than the draught stout.

Has anyone ever been in the vvf scary-looking Admiral Duncan on Boar Lane in Leeds? There's a lovely Sam's pub (the name of which escapes me) just round the corner on Kirkgate but I never felt like chancing my arm in the Duncan. Actually, both of these have probably been 'renovated' into horrible bars by now, knowing how Leeds is going.

― Tim, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

whereabouts on boar lane tim? leeds pubs, can't remember that many, ha, the scarboro tap, for pre brighton beach beer, oh dear...

― gareth, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have just remembered why the Cock is so bad, me and my mate staggered in there already quite pissed because we were meeting boys who refused to come to the bar we had been in and insisted on a pub. Anyway the boys were late and the Cock was FULL to busting esp. with sleazy men. Yuck.

― Emma, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Gareth: Corn Exchange end, South side. I remember the windows being blacked out, always a bad bad sign...

― Tim, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

which reminds me - about 6 months ago i tried to find a sam smith's someone had told me about that had sofa upstairs. i think it was behind leicester square tube but i completely failed to locate it - was i lied to or does it exist??

― toby, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Important qn:
Back in my student days (mid-1980s) Sam Smiths used to do a wonderful pint of bitter that was near cherry red in colour. I used to drink it in the GSMD bar, which was then located in a basement beneath one of the Barbican tower blocks, but you could pretty much get this beer anywhere. What was that bitter called, and do they still make it? If not, why not? (OBB and the other bitter they sell now in London is not a patch on this grebt drink)

― Jeff W, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Toby: the Bricklyers Arms on Gresse St (N of Oxford St nr Tott. Ct. Rd) is sofa-tastic, but there is also at least one sofa upstairs at the (Newman St) Blue Posts.

― Tim, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Toby, could also be the Chandos on St Martin's Lane, I think I'm right in saying it's a SS pub. It has TRILLIONS of sofas upstairs and reminds me of our old common room at college only with more beer. A bit of a touristy one though.

― Emma, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Emma's right. The little booths downstairs in the Chandos are great, too.

― Tim, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

oh yeah, the chandos rings a bell. why oh why could i not find it? do i = fule??

― toby, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes I'm afraid so Toby.... it's right at the bottom of St Martin's Lane, by the National Portrait Gallery / Trafalgar Square. Mind you 'round the back of Leicester Square tube' is a rather vague way of giving directions.

― Emma, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

chandos gets INCREDIBLY full and smokey. used to be a regular meet pub for me - esp as V EASY TO FIND. there is a dartsboard downstairs hidden in one corner niche.

― Alan T, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Talking of darts and SS pubs - my regular darts game is in The Lyceum on The Strand nr the top of Waterloo Bridge. It's fairly unpleasant.

― Dr. C, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What the darts game or the pub? :-) I used to work across the road from The Lyceum (Somerset House) - yes it is an awful pub, but we still used to go there a lot for some reason. The beer, probably. My beer question upthread rings no bells with you then, Dr. C?

― Jeff W, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No, I don't remember a red ale. There's always Taddy Porter, but that's sump oil coloured and in bottles. It wasn't a draught version of that, was it? Did you ever frequent the Wellington, two doors down? It's a rotten pub now, but used to be ace back in the late 80's in a down at heel kind of way.

― Dr. C, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The only Wellington I know is the incredible shrinking pub in Turnpike Lane.

― MarkH, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sod this sam smith's stuff, I think we should taken an ILE trip to the "pie room" upstairs at the tiny Newman Arms. (and not just so i can say "when come back, bring pie" -- though that will be a bonus)

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No, it wasn't a Porter, definitely an ale of some sort. Yes, I've been to "The Welly" many times. Upstairs is still quite nice in a genteel kind of way, but no decent beer to be had there IIRC.

― Jeff W, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was a pretty regular Sam Smiths drinker in Yorkshire in the late 80s / early 90s and I have no memory of any ruby ale. Which either means they'd stopped doing it by then or it was *fantastic*.

The Lyceum is nice when those blinking darts players aren't in, har.

― Tim, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Some internet digging suggests it might be the Old Brewery Pale Ale I'm thinking of (nowadays only available bottled?).

― Jeff W, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

mmmm, a nice pint of O.B is marvellous, and the Cheese is a splendid pub, I also quite like the Champion as it's kinda handy for post shopping pints as it's so close to Oxford Street.

― chris, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

twenty-four years pass...

RIP to the old bastard

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/26240979.humphrey-smith-tadcasters-sam-smiths-brewery-dies-81/

― Alba, Tuesday, 30 June 2026 17:49 (two days ago)

Sweet maybe their pubs will be habitable again

― 99 gram lychee (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 30 June 2026 17:50 (two days ago)

I think his son is just as bad.

― stanes on the knees and blood on the jumber (Tom D.), Tuesday, 30 June 2026 17:52 (two days ago)

Phatty Taddies! 1 for $3, 2 for $5!

― peace, man, Tuesday, 30 June 2026 17:57 (two days ago)

Bricklayers Arms (in that weird bit that's not quite soho and not quite fitzrovia) is nice, reasonable prices for central London, not too busy and I can report (is it safe now?) smartphones and swearing both seem to be tolerated.

― Here is the mentioned donkey, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 1 July 2026 09:13 (yesterday)

Loads of the pubs are very nice as far as how they look goes, just weird it's always had this Paul Auster novel x Brexit character lurking above it all.

― LocalGarda, Wednesday, 1 July 2026 09:14 (yesterday)

I think his son is just as bad.

The son was allowed to oversee the London pubs, where the rules tended to be overlooked.

― mahb, Wednesday, 1 July 2026 09:28 (yesterday)

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