please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
A Sam Smith’s pub. It has a very interesting interior, with separate drinking areas. But it does not have Old Brewery Bitter on handpump, so is not recommended if ale quality is important to you. There is a pinkish kerbstone outside marking the location of the pump that assisted John Snow in demonstrating that Cholera was a water-borne disease.
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Love this pub. It gets insanely busy, and that's not just because of the cheapness of its (quality) SS drinks range, it's because the atmosphere is consistently appealing. It seems to go on forever, with plenty of seating upstairs when you can't find a slot in the more cramped downstairs area (or if the pavement outside doesn't appeal). The staff are friendly, the clientele are a mixed bunch but it's always relaxed, bustling and generally a pleasant experience.
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I like to hang here with a friend of mine after hitting the gym. Fun in the summer when everyone's outside.
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The pub stands on a famous site. Check out this parliament link for the history.
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=36104&SESSION=891
Fascinating.
mikem - 19 Jun 2008 11:42 |
No hand pumps, but this is a well kept, cheap and friendly pub. Good to drop into when heading elsewhere.
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Great place, cheap, friendly, decent grub, nice OTT furnishings upstairs.
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Decent and no-frills Sam Smiths pub in the heart of Soho. Upstairs bar can pack a lot in.
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Incredibly cheap!!! Very young and live downstairs! More relaxed and nice atmosphere upstairs.
Got really drunk without spending much... WOW... going back for sure!!!
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The upstairs bar has the worst wallpaper ever. I could almost feel my retinas burning in there. Snow-blindness? I think I suffered from John Snow-blindness.
The downstairs bar is nice but small. Obviously not small enough for some though, so it's been partitioned into three unfeasibly smaller areas. Not a pub for claustrophobics.
Until I stopped in here, the Duke of Argyll was my least favourite Sam Smith pub in Soho, but this place has replaced it. That doesn't mean it's a bad place - it's still probably in the upper-half of Soho pubs - it's just that if you want a Sam's experience there's much better alternatives within a couple minutes' stroll.
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Cheap and friendly, nicely preserved. Lovely.
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This really is cheap. Five pints came to just under a tenner. The upstairs is a nice space.
anonymous - 26 Nov 2006 12:29 |
Absolutely heaving round one side of the bar on Saturday night, yes strangely empty round the other side. Was served a decent pint of S.S bitter in a PLASTIC glass, what's that all about.
Felt a bit sorry for the overworked bar staff.
This was okay for a quick (cheap) stop but wouldn't stay here for more than one.
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Cheapo (Pint of Stout and a bitter lemon £3.30) Sam Smiths pub (so all nitrokegged), sort of comfy but also quite tired looking.
I find it hard to have much of an opinion about this place really...
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good(ish) cheap beer, though too busy on a friday night
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It's a nice pub wiv nice barstaff and nice beer etc but the ladies loos were awful - no bog roll, loads of rubbish instead.
Got some stinking Dunhill International from Cote d'Ivoire off the little man outside, like sweepings they were. When will I ever learn?
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Great pub, good clientele, nice mix, unpretentious only bettered by the Krishnan Guru-Murphy round the corner
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Stonch, thanks for your comments on the SS branding issue. I actually know some pubs that were branded as SS pubs, but have now had the SS reference removed, so they obviously had a change of heart somewhere along the line. You are thankfully right about SS treating historic premises with respect. They do actually have some of the most historic pubs in the capital - Princess Louise, Cittie of York and the one in Fleet Street whose name escapes me for the minute.
As for Mr Anonymous's comment about using the website and typing in Samuel Smith into the search engine, that's all well and good, but a tad impractical if you're in the middle of a pub crawl !
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Anonymous, I don't think in most cases the signs displayed outside the pub necessarily predate the premises being taken over by SS. Although of course you are right to say most (probably all in fact) of SS' London pubs were pubs long before SS took them over. They seem to specialise in historic premises in fact, and thankfully they treat them with respect.
anonymous - 10 Feb 2006 20:21 |
John Bonser, I would think the reason why 'Samuel Smiths'is not written on the signs is that in most cases pub signs were there before they became SS pubs so it would be a pity to change the pub signage which in many cases is very historic and the words 'Samuel Smiths' would look very out of place.
Anyway if you want to find out which pubs sell the stuff why not just use this website and type in Samuel Smiths into the 'anything' search at the top of the page
anonymous - 10 Feb 2006 19:36 |
JohnBonser - I think that's just SS's style. After all, their (laudable) approach to the historic pubs they have acquired in central London seems to be to avoid modern clutter in favour of an appropriate "period" style, with original features intact and emphasised. Surely brewery branding would detract from this?
On the other hand maybe they do prefer not to trumpet from the outside that a pub is one of their own due to their policy of only selling their own beers. Many comments on this site do demonstrate people's uneasiness with a pub that doesn't serve them their standard Stella/Carling/Grolsch horsepiss, and lots of people who don't value diversity in the market* wouldn't go in an otherwise attractive pub if they knew they would be challenged to choose a beer they can't buy in every other pub in the world.
* you might say that SS onyl selling their own stuff actually runs counter to a desire to diversity in the market. You'd be wrong though - with the law on pub estates as it stands (which effectively restricts enormous brewery empires by requiring breweries with more than a certain number of pubs to sell guest ales) tied houses are a good thing as they provide sustenance for proper beer producers like Fullers, Young's and SS.
anonymous - 7 Feb 2006 12:58 |
Typical Sam Smiths pub, so you know what you're getting.
One question, please for contributors to this website - does anyone know why do Sam Smiths choose not to advertise their ownership on the outside of their pubs - it's quite annoying. Are they ashamed of their name and think it might put people off going in ? If so, well why don't they do something about it !
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I have always liked this little place for a quick half of the weisse on an afternoon out and about.
anonymous - 6 Jan 2006 13:55 |
Nice, slightly tatty but relaxed pub, cheap beer. Often seems packed even when it's half empty.
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I like the 'semi door' ! OK pub no cask gear!
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Typical Sam Smiths pub. Close proximity of magazine publishing companies means that friday nights it's full of young graduates in their first job looking for a cheap pint. So lots of kiddies shouting loudly and trying to impress each other. Which can be fun if you're a) one of them, or b) looking for someone to laugh at.
Downstairs area manages to feel cramped even when it's empty but upstairs is a bit more spacious.
flat3 - 23 Nov 2005 10:50 |
Great pub as everyone says, very traditional. But the beer is APPALLING!! Sam Smith's really is dreadful - and it's all keg stuff, they don't do draught. I had a couple of pints and after about 20 mins each pint turned into a sweet medecinal, slightly metallic nightmare. Wot is it with Sam Smith's pubs? they usually fantastic buildings, like this one, and the Cittie of York, and the Princess Louise, but the beer is undrinkable ....
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excellent pub, cheap for soho samuel smith pub, lunch time food not bad
anonymous - 31 Aug 2005 22:48 |
Another Samuel Smith's pub with an upstairs. I like this place too.
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About the only pub in the area even worth considering if you're mad enough to want to go up west, unfortunately for out-of-towners the majority in Soho are a bag of shite and this one'll wear a bit thin for a whole evening in the Smoke.
Ace beer as always in Sam Smiths, a jukebox would ruin it, and where would you put it. anyway?
Only criticism is the fact that for some bizarre reason they've put a sort of semi-door in the gap between the two bars, and it blocks the top of the space, not the bottom. So people are constantly doing a limbo-dance from the front bar to the khazi. Have cracked my head on it many a time. Just seems a totally unnecessary thing to have done. (The door, not crack my head).
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Nice little pub - populated by a few too many media types on Friday nights though - other than that a wonderful place for lunch, as they do good, honest pub food at reasonable prices.
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This is a good pub. Got served a bottle of corked white one though, so be warned.
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Drinking in London, so I`m told by non-Londoners, can be a pretty soul destroying process. The place, they say, is stuffed with bland bars filled to crapping point with hangable yuppies and an over abundance of heinous chain outlets that vomit forth onto the streets a whole menagerie of appalling clients from dawn until dusk. And reigning over it all is a big fat pound sign that hoovers up your money with the sort of force you`d only ever experience again in the centre of a volcano.
However, while all stereotypes/rumours usually have some smidgen of foundation in truth, I’ve come to the conclusion that this kind of shite opinion stems more from individual crap judgement than actual reality. For London is overflowing with more quality digs than any other city (bar the ever-impressive Norwich) and the John Snow typifies this perfectly. It’s a great big building of classic character, without a hint of commercialism or rank swankyness, instead relying on an authentic 70s feel that is neither overdone or forced. The drink selection is beautifully wide on all fronts and at both its upstairs and downstairs bars, the prices are, for London, relatively cheap.
All of this near perfection encourages a cracking, if sometimes over populated, environment with barely any trouble. And just to put the icing on the cake the staff are bloody quick and bloody friendly.
If youre going to booze in one gaff in London and get a real feel for the quality of the place, then the John Snow should be your port of call.
10/10
pgazz - 19 May 2005 17:45 |
A jukebox would be perfect, as long as the aforementioned Sugababes were banned...lovely wee pub this, found it accidentally halfway through a massive sorrow-drowning pub crawl the day John Peel popped his clogs, and it's become an excellent place to start a 'Soho Research Session'. And that Oatmeal Stout in bottles that Sam Smith's pubs do - I'm having some of that, marvellous stuff.
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Having background music, decided by the barstaff is a very BAD THING, as you finish up listening to the Sugababes - Personally, I would rather have no background music or better still, install a jukebox.
TheGP - 27 Feb 2005 20:14 |
the staff at John Snow are really nice. the pub is a great meeting space. BAD THING - recently Sam Smith headquarters decided its pubs can no longer have music. So if you need a catch up with a friend, John Snow is great. But if you like your pub to have some background music, skip it.
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Brilliant old pub with a nice selection of cheap booze. The staff are very friendly and the service is generally very good. Does get a bit packed though, and lately there seems to be a massive lack of music. Other than that, a lovely place for a few jars.
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Great pub. Always my first port of call in London. Standard Sam Smith's fare, but a lively pub with good staff.
anonymous - 4 Jan 2005 14:49 |
...But be careful if delving into the Samuel Smiths' selection of drinks - I had a bad experience with their tequila once (although, I admit, this was my fault in having too many - and it WAS accompanied by salt and a lovely lemon)
Geoff - 13 Nov 2004 12:53 |
great pub fantastic
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Ciaran - The whole point of Samuel Smiths pubs is that they don't sell all the branded crap that they do elsewhere...
Go to the millions of other pubs that sell Guinness - Or be a little more adventurous and try the Sam Smiths equivalent?
TheGP - 10 Sep 2004 11:58 |
If Samuel Smith's pubs served Guinness I would be a regular here and much richer than I am now. But they don't. So I'm not.
Ciarán - 26 Aug 2004 16:48 |
great pub, great beers, friendly staff, good place to meet friends.
pablo - 17 Aug 2004 15:02 |
One of the best pubs in the area. Fantastic beer at great prices, good atmosphere, nice location.
I can't find anything wrong with it! Perhaps it needs a jukebox?
TheGP - 10 Aug 2004 14:45 |
I love the pub. Just not a big Samuel Smith fan. Shame really as its dirt cheap.
Wayne - 9 Jun 2004 12:15 |
This pub is great - i have been a few times over the past few years - cheap good qualty beers of all shape and form. Everything a good pub should be, although the loos are a very long way from the upstairs bar.
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Best pub in Soho, 1.95 a pint and decent staff. Proper old pub.
Rob Hill - 2 Jun 2004 17:25 |
Best pub in Soho .... Simple as that .. Cheap nice beer and friendly barmaids.
anonymous - 2 Jun 2004 17:25 |
Very pleasant - much like almost all Sam Smith's establishments.
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Charming little pub, a tad small, but with the usual Sam Smiths drinks, such as Hefe wheat beer and the old bloke in the box. D-Pils for psychos too.
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Cheap & Friendly but only beer choice is OBB. Cheaper than Wetherspoons.
Tim - 5 Dec 2003 13:04 |
Great for history on John Snow. Just outside was location of Water Pump where he did his famous study on the spread of Cholera by London contaminated water supplies. Bored then the Beers are nice.
Snowman - 30 Oct 2003 15:27 |
Sam Smith's pub in Soho. Usual Sam Smith's fayre, traditional wood interior, respecting this history of the building and a restaurant upstairs.
Timos - 12 Sep 2003 17:32 |
Cheep beer, always somewhere to sit, friendly bar staff, very central.
Gabi - 12 Jun 2003 10:25 |
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