please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Went in to see if it really was as bad as all that. It's really a station caff that sells beer and, as many people have said, there are several pubs down the side of the station in Villiers Street to start with as well as others nearby, so why would you not go there?
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only for the desperate but at least its an option for a quick heart starter whilst waiting for teh train
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worst station pub in the UK in my view, in the face of pretty strong competition.
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Why?!? As a couple of posts have stated, with a vast selection of pubs within close proximity, why would anyone in their right mind drink in this place?!? Even if you are waiting for a train, I'd suggest venturing outside the station......I decided it would be the ideal meeting place recently and regretted my decision immediately. Lack of atmosphere? Check. Limited selection of alcoholic beverages? Check. Still overpriced? Absolutley. The pub also seems to be on the same route as the dribble bus, because the majority of patrons seemed to be struggling with simple tasks such as speaking. Please don't go here, you'll just encourage the place to stay open longer.
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Dire. A big zero. Step outside the station, there are so many good pubs within 2 minutes walk.
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I have only been in here once but i stayed for more than one drink so it couldnt have been that bad,or could it,I was drunk at the time.I will go back again and see if it is as bad as everyone is saying because I found it ok
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Arrived at Charing Cross last week just in time to watch my train depart from the platform, so I thought "What the hell, why don't we check out The Boadicea?". You see, every time I travel through this station, I glance at The Boadicea, and snicker at the ridiculous advertising.
First of all, it claims to be a "Traditonal English Pub". Now typically in London, that never translates to meaning "A Traditional English Pub", it actually means "Tourist Trap". However, this is not a touristy pub, as it's in a railway station that only deals with commuter lines. Saying that, it still can't literally be a traditional English pub, as a traditional english pub isn't typically found in a rebuilt railway station, next to a Burger King. Bemused curiousity about what they could possibly mean eventually got the best of me.
The second item on the advertising is "Fully Air Conditioned". To me, this negates the first point about it being a Traditional English Pub. A true Traditional English Pub is uncomfortably humid, and smokier than a Cypress Hill show. Still, as a non-smoker, this did sound mildly appealing.
Finally, the key advertising draw, "Real Ales". Could some kind of mini-Doric Arch/Head of Steam be hidden behind the concealling frontage of wood and frosted glass? I had 25 minutes to spare, and the spirit of an adventurer (not a good one, just a curious one).
On my approach to the bar, I was optimistic. Sure - I had to pass a few of customers who looked like they'd slipped their minders' attention, but it's the kind of location I'd expect to find them. On the handpulls they had Courage (would have been my first guess as to what they'd have) and Davenport's from Birmingham, something I'd never seen before. "Hazzah!" I thought to myself, this place isn't 100% sh*t after all.........until I was informed by the barmaid that the ales were off today. Obviously in the rush of serving all of the 5 customers in the place, there's no time to take the clips down.
"Would I like something else?". After some deliberation over which remaining option was the least non-drinkable, I selected Kronenbourg. That's off as well. "Would I like Grolsch?" Not particularly, but it seems to be the only beer they have in stock.
So there I sit, in the "traditional English pub", drinking a beer I didn't really want, in a pub smokier than the waiting area in front of the platforms (air conditioning didn't seem to be on either), with Neil Diamond blubbering on the jukebox. It's a shame Dante never had the chance to drink here, otherwise his vision of hell might have been completely different.
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After several years of carefully avoiding this pit that painlessly fails to reach even the traditionally low standards of BR-era station drinking holes, just one quick lapse on a Friday evening meant that I found it to be... just the same as ever.
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I am quite shocked to see this place got 3.5/10. Maybe some aliens (or ozzies) landed and thought this was the perfect english pub.
DO NOT GO HERE, it is awful. go down the steps on the left hand side to the real world where you can find pubs without Hobos and Lushes grabbing a half pint of rancid sherry on a sticky floor while dying of passive smoking...
The Black Hole of Calcutta is a very valid illustration 0/10...
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Come on guys. This pub allows one to experience the meths drinking culture of the area in a safe environment.
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Splendid little hostelry serving a fine selection of well kept, traditional engish ales and exciting foreign lagers. Staff are exotic and imported specially from all parts of the globe just which ensures every drink you order will be substituted with some alternative, presumably from their homeland. If nothing else, this place is worth a visit just to see the unique airconditioning system which seems to fill the whole place with an overpowering aroma of vomit, urine and sweat. My favourite little corner of London.
Not!
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A pit stop before catching the train back to the Dartford badlands (thank f**k i saw sense and moved away). Anyway, it's just as the previous reviews state and rather like Margate, in that it's a nice place to have a very qick pint, but you wouldn't want to have a session in there!
Though, and i wonder if other reviewers would concur, that train station barspubs have a certain ambience all their own - for good or ill.
Mind you it's not as bad as the Oast house in London Bridge - that place has no bogs!
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I always think of it as The Calcutta. As in The Black Hole of Calcutta.
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What I'd expect of a station pub. It's alright for the odd light ale, and if you're waiting for someone before going on, or waiting for a train it's not bad. Wouldn't spend too much time in here, but the pint of youngs (I think it was) I had was OK, if maybe a little flat. Wouldn't come here for a session, but for a livener it's alright.
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Agree with poster below, good jukebox mind !
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I've popped in a few times, mainly when waiting to meet people before we go elsewhere. It's your typical station pub, overpriced, too small, etc. Though, at least it has fairly decent music most of the time.
HTM69 - 31 May 2006 19:52 |
Walked past it last week - smelt and looked as though the entrance was being used as a public loo - it was quite rank. Saw a member of staff step over it without any apparent concern.
Places like this give the Railways a bad (ok worse) name.
As I said before - AVOID !!!!
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Exactly what you expect for a small pub in a station if you really need a drink theres plenty of bars and pubs a minute away
juzza - 31 Mar 2006 14:16 |
So you've had a night out and you've got the choice between the platform and this gem.... get over it, go inside, and the wait for your train will fly by. It's a station bar, they're not meant to be nice :-)
anonymous - 28 Mar 2006 22:37 |
Often go in this pub on the way to football as I travel into London via charing cross. Okit ain't the greatest pub in the world but for a quick pint when you get off the train it isn't that bad! I will admit that the staff aren't very good but as I say earlier, for a quick pint on the way home from work, this place isn't bad
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Should be shut down !! Total shite. Filthy dirty (both the pub and a lot of it's customers) - staff couldn't give a toss (except into the beer perhaps) - didn't hang around to taste anything by way of drinks - getting out was a much better idea.
Avoid at ALL COSTS !!!!
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Holy mother of God is this place complete pigshite.
As other reviewers point out you have to start off with a pretty low level of expectation for any pub within a railway station, but even the depths of THE most piss ridden sewer in the Philippines are a more appealing and, while were at it, a more hygienic, place to ingest a bit of liquid than this Christ forsaken crap heap.
For a kick off, this alleged “pub” is ALWAYS dirty (packets, food, muck, spit, gunk etc) and ALWAYS has a nostril slapping stench that nicely combines rotting monkey with piss soaked cabbage. The furniture and décor effortlessly matches this toxic ambiance thanks to a clutter of rickety tables/chairs and a suffocating interior kept permanently sweaty by the absence of any ventilation apart from the narrow door. To put it bluntly it`s like drinking in a wheelie bin after an elephant has offloaded a months worth of bowel movements.
The booze meanwhile isn’t any tonic to its nightmarish surroundings, limited as it is to two or three warm lagers that grate on the throat as they pass down straight through the stomach and right into the irritable part of the lower intestine. Still at least all guttural attention is distracted by the need to keep an eye on the serial beggers and loud mouthed arsewits who tend to make up the “clientele”, although in many cases they tend to be more polite that the “lovely” people who pass for staff.
I understand very much Bob V`s point about bad being good sometimes, but really that only works when there are some kitsch or camp element that allows you to prize out a couple of giggles.
But this place isn’t funny - its just plain nasty.
0/10 – and one of the worst pubs in the country.
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Tiny, scruffy with bad beer. I love it
anonymous - 8 Jul 2005 00:29 |
Whenever you go to an airport, the bars there are generally bright and lively places. I suppose this is to alleviate the fear of impending doom that nervous flyers, allowing them to have a few drinks to steady their nerves. If you're scared of travelling by train, don't even think about drinking in the Boadicea. It will only depress and scare you further. It's a truly grimy and depressing affair and if I were to die in a train crash travelling from Charing Cross, I'd rather my epitath didn't include the fact that my last hour on earth was spent drinking warm beer in this place.
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Darryl and Rob are right about this place! In fact all the reviewers are. And yet.....I still use it when occasion demands. (Albeit only for a quick one.)
Darryl hit's the nail on the head. "Reassuringly rubbish." Despite continuing unrest in the middle east, war in Iraq, the threat of international terrorism and economic and social problems at home,so long as the Boad or Kent Connection still stands, everything is going to be aaaaalright!
It's amazing how a typically dank and depressing station bar can make you realize that despite everything, things just aint that bad. It certainly is cosier and more characterful than the terrible Wetherspoons at Victoria.
A real institution. Long may it's awfulness continue!
Bob V - 5 Nov 2003 16:54 |
Almost a tradition in itself - Train station bars are the black hole of the drinking world. And this one is no different. I must confess to having spent time in this place. The beer is not as bad as one might think. It's just so depressing in there.
Rob - 29 Sep 2003 15:29 |
Always reassuringly rubbish. Good old-fashioned cruddy station boozer. It'll always be the Kent Connection, mind.
Darryl - 5 May 2003 23:49 |
Well, seeing as no one else had plucked up the courage, I swallowed my pride (well, Fosters...) and went in here on Thursday. It hasn't changed. An absolute hole.
Pauly H - 27 Jan 2003 17:12 |
Don't be fooled ladies and gents - this has now been transformed into a "new-look bar" called Boadicea. Not quite plucked up the courage to go in there yet, so anyone brave enough to do the hounours...?
Pauly H - 23 Dec 2002 14:52 |
Yes, it is the pub inside the station, and yes, it is seedy. "I'm waiting for my train" is not a good enough reason to go into this pit of despair...
Pauly H - 8 Oct 2002 14:36 |
If this is the pub inside the station, it's extremely seedy and small, attracts desparate commuters who can't handle the trains - good for people watching.
Corin - 8 Oct 2002 12:43 |
