please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
This place does not come close to beating the simply disgusting Shakespear at Victoria station which is the ultimate in filthy dirty tacky and horrid tourist trap pubs however an excellent attempt is made here to get the gourmless tourists to feel this is a typical London pub which it so clearly is not.
Ugly beyond words from the outside,souless inside some of the worst trained staff in all of the world (did not know what Pinot is).
Do not go in this building.....there are dozens of fair to very good pubs within quarter of a mile,go down the side streets or drink in the park with the hobos.
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This place does not come close to beating the simply disgusting Shakespear at Victoria station which is the ultimate in filthy dirty tacky and horrid tourist trap pubs however an excellent attempt is made here to get the gourmless tourists to feel this is a typical London pub which it so clearly is not.
Ugly beyond words from the outside,souless inside some of the worst trained staff in all of the world (did not know what Pinot is).
Do not go in this building.....there are dozens of fair to very good pubs within quarter of a mile,go down the side streets or drink in the park with the hobos.
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I can't really add much from my last review a couple of years ago. I only come here as the Royal London Hotel hosts a function for a club I'm in every year. The customers were similar to my last visit - a mix of tourists and odd groups. A hen party was attracting a fair amount of attention, especially when one girl walked in with a full-length body stocking, leaving very little to the imagination. I assume they were all staying in the hotel. Otherwise, it would be the last choice on earth to hold a hen/stag party. Beers were unchanged from 2 years previously. Hopefully the casks have been changed since then!
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This is the pub to go to if you want to be among young people either about to go on holiday, or, have just returned. The hotel is the London departure/arrivals for Contiki Holidays. The ale wasnt bad when I visited & the food looks plentiful - I'm told it is cheap & prettty good in the circumstances.
Yes, it's hprrendous from the outside, but it isnt too bad inside. I've been to some old historic pubs that have been slaughtered once yu o through the door.
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From the street, this looks like one of the least appealing pubs in the capital city, and even the most gullible tourists surely can't be taken in by the manufactured name and assortment of stereotypical images on the sign (Big Ben, Beefeaters, Routemaster bus, etc.). However, never having actually ventured inside previously, I finally thought that I would give it the benefit of the doubt. Apart from the tables adjacent to the front windows, it has a dark interior that is almost totally devoid of decoration apart from a couple of TV screens. It does have two handpumps - Abbot and Greene King IPA (cheaper than I expected at �2.40, and actually not that bad) - but also a surprisingly limited number of lager founts and a lack of other drinks behind the bar. Overall, a rather dismal fake 'pub'.
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Whilst standing outside to finish off a cigarette I peered through the window and a sense of dread overcame me as I scanned an almost empty pub with eight, yes eight, young bar staff standing around wondering what to do. The barmaid that served me was so young that her parents hadn�t yet taught her how to say please or thank you.
This is an open plan pub that the Barracuda chain decorators would be proud of, even down to the plasma screens that were on for no reason. The frontage is all glass with a great view of a foreign currency exchange and Greek Taverna across the main road. There is some seating out the back in the square, but I found it rather depressing.
Abbot and Greene King IPA were both available alongside a standard draught selection, but my Guinness was below par so heaven knows what the ale is like.
I�ll not be returning here.
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It's in London, it's a pub.
A very poor pub though.
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Pub attached to the Royal National Hotel with little or no atmosphere. It's a useful drinking venue if you're at the hotel, but generally poor on choice and quality. Greene King IPA and Abbot Ale were available during our visit. But the latter was clearly not right. I'd have no reason to stop by here again unless having some kind of business with the hotel.
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A total hell hole! Indifferent food and worse staff.
Imagine one of the tourist tat shops that selling toy london buses etc, turned into a pub...AVOID
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I am a tourist and I was there with my girlfriend and we were looking for something to eat, so we decided to go into the pub as it was on the way we were going. We walked in, and I think we were speaking to the manager and I have never heard anyone so rude in whole my life, he told us in not so many words that the kitchen was closed.
We are visitors in their country and that man treated us like that - just a degrace. Never go there - London Pub
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It's tacky name and the location seem purposefully aimed at enticing the tourists. Whilst this means that anyone with taste knows to stay away, it does worry me that visitors to our shores may return home thinking that this is what all London pubs are like.
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a fantastic pub. great place to meet ur local pals, also grat for tourists. spent many a drunken night and day in here. great atmosphere. i have been comiing down to russell square for a year now and it is impossible to go into this pub and not know someone. freindly staff, a very happy cheery pub. highly recomended
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A grotty pub from the "Watney's pub tart-up" school of the 1960s. Features a large step for you to fall up while carrying your beer (I didn't) and an empty are for people to mill around in. Get the impression that the staff haven't got a clue about the drinks they sell - a request for a glass of merlot was net with a blank gawp.
It is attached to an even grottier hotel, the Royal National. You would do better to venture 200 yeards in almost any direction - the Queen's Larder just past Russel Square station is a far better pick.
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Visited this place under duress from my cousin who passes it from work on his way to Euston every night and thought it worth a look. Previous comments describe it well enough. Large, characterless and formulaic 'station' type pub underneath a huge hotel. Service was OK and TV's everywhere which was handy as the Euro 2008 semi final was on. Despite its charmless side it is indeed packed full of tourists who on last night's showing were a) friendly and chatty, and b) quite often young and attractive.
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Oh my days needs a whole new direction.
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Look, it's not THAT bad. I was visiting London on business and came in to have a quick pint and watch the football. Alright, it's too big, the staff are at best indifferent, but at least the fact that it is so obviously a tourist trap, keeps most of the local headcases out.
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Large anonymous Greene King bar on the ground floor of the huge Royal International Hotel. Mix of tourists and business people. It serves beer and food, and there are places to sit. There's little else to say about it.
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Good tip about the beers at the Bloomsbury bowling alley Andy. Might go there.
One thing though - Kolsch is an ale.
London Pub is shit, the anon review below Andy's was actually mine, don't know why it is shown as being anon.
anonymous - 11 Oct 2006 15:40 |
Places like this shock me. Why is it that tourists come here, see a pub called "The London Pub", and think "That's what a typical pub in London must be like, let's try it."? I would never go somewhere like, say, Paris and drink in a place called The Paris Bistro or something similarly named in a blatent attempt to draw my tourist dollar. I'd hate to say that tourists from other countries are more naive, but there's some pretty strong evidence looking at this pub's main client base.
Tourists who drink here are wasting their holiday experience. Presumably they've come for the history of this fine city - so why drink in the lobby of a god-awful hotel, in a hideous post-war block? The Princess Louise is only 5-10 minutes away! Fools.
As for locals just wanting a good pint, I would rather drink in the Bloomsbury Bowling Alley than this place - even if I'm not bowling. No ale, but plenty of higher-end lagers (Meantime Kolsch on tap) and some interesting choices in bottles (including the Meantime Coffee beer - best of both worlds!)
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On a pub crawl we took a shortcut through here (you can get out the back and cut out through the block it is in).
This watering hole can only be described a sub-Wetherspoons.
anonymous - 1 Oct 2006 20:33 |
The beer is poor and so is the food. It's usually full of tourists under the impression they have come to a decent London boozer. Also note that in the evenings it is full of accountants from a dodgy firm around the corner. Put together, you are left with no atmosphere and nowhere to sit!
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I LOVE this pub. Great pub grub served all evening til very late. Staff were wonderful and very tolerant of the huge crowds of drunken tourists. The pub has a real cosy feel to it. The beer garden could be bigger but i dont think theres much they can do about that hehe. I can;t wait to go beer there again soon!
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Think this place is owned by the same group that own the bed factories ( hotels ) which are above and adjacent. Have been using this place mainly at lunchtimes since it opened, when visiting London. Dull selection of beers, and barsnack food available. Staff seem to change every visit. Generally full of tourists and suits at lunchtimes. OK sort of place, but dont break a leg to get here
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Nobody who lives in Russell Square that i know drinks in this so called pub. But anonymous you must have had it really bad if you think The Goose is 150% better as that is a car crash of a pub.
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This is one of the worst pubs I have ever been to. I was there in a big works group - we won't be going back. The barstaff are very rude, I overheard the bar manager telling one of his underlings to just walk away from a demanding American lady rather than serve her (OK, she was being very demanding, but you HAVE CHOSEN to work in a service industry.)He couldn't be bothered to serve a colleague of mine who had been waiting for about 15 minutes. Don't bother - go to the Goose around the corner, in Marchmont Street, it's about 150% better.
anonymous - 29 Mar 2006 16:04 |
Erm, there are enough negative comments already so I don't want to repeat whats already been said. I have only been here once and the night I went in the place had it's fair share of rowdy drunks and it seemed expensive to me. Also thought it was a bit tacky and about as far from a 'London pub' as you can get.
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wow!!! i worked at the London Pub in 2001 and it was great. every night it was packed and it was always a great night. a very clean pub, Nice meals, great beer garden, resonably price drinks. What has happened???? can anyone fill me in?
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It is so humiliating that the first glimpse of a boozer in London that many tourists will get is this travesty of a place.
Typically inept antipodean barstaff serving shite ale in surroundings that would make the waiting room at Coventry train station seem homely and welcoming.
That said, pulling dim American birds in there is easier than falling off a log.
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Can't find a lot I disagree with in previous reviews. It seems touristy, it's big though somehow feels cramped. It's not hideous or really worth avoiding if you just want a quick drink, but you wouldn't choose to go there either.
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this is a bit like putting a sign saying "fish and chip shop" outside a thai restaurant,...it just aint so,...the only thing preventing this being blatent fraudulent misrepresentation is the fact that this "pub" is evidently in "London".
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Even though a recent lick of paint has left the London pub with a far better appearance than that shown in the above picture, it still looks bloody awful - like a cross between a recently condemned abattoir and a scummy trucker caf� outside Doncaster. Seriously, if youre constipated, this is the kind of building that on sight will cause the necessary shift in the bowels to cure your blockages.
However, if you can stab at least one eye out and venture through its doors you`ll actually find a fairly presentable and well maintained pub that contrasts rather sharply with the shifty exterior. It is perfectly true � as others have pointed out � that the interior is of the �tourist trap� variety and has less character than a Girls Aloud album, but nevertheless it makes up for this partial with a wide selection of drinks and a decently prepared menu. It is also rather spacious with nicely separated areas and thanks to a slightly removed location doesn�t attract the heinous combination of students and chavs.
The London Pub is therefore unlikely to make anyones list of top pubs, but it certainly isnt (in my humble opinion) as fit for demolition as other reviewers have suggested. A respectable 6/10
anonymous - 17 Apr 2005 20:12 |
Large pub with excpensive beer served by surly staff. Mostly tourists especially in summer. Cannot really think of any reason to return.
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Tourists anybody? Looks rubbish, is, as some of the punters would call it 'trash'
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U always have good looking staff there! Really like ur pub..
Greetings from Finland
json - 16 Sep 2004 22:03 |
Foul pseduo, wannabe tourist pub which doesn't quite work. Horrible and tacky interior coupled with the fact there is never more than four people in there @ any one time.
Situated underneath the equally horrible Central Hotel. If ever there was a pub to be avoided in central London........this one would be high on that list!
Rob - 3 Nov 2003 15:31 |
The name and the fact that it's situated near hotel central in Bloomsbury should make this pub a tourist trap. I have, however, found it to be more rough round the edges and full of office types. I have only been on weekday lunchtimes to be fair, but it's always felt pretty shite.
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