please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Contains some interesting original Victorian features (notably the bar back), but it’s just too full of tourists for my liking. Not surprising considering its proximity to the St Stephen’s Tower end of the Houses of Parliament. I’ve nothing against tourists, but I prefer a slightly less crowded pub. Definitely worth seeking out for the excellent interior, but I do not think that I would make it one of my regular haunts. Hall and Woodhouse (essentially Badger) ales, which were fine on my recent visit.
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Nice view of the Palace Of Westminster from the window, and a decent pint of Badger to go with it.
The interior has been tastefully refurbished and is worth one visit on that point alone.
Sadly, it’s not the biggest, and being slap bang on the tourist trail, it’s hard to get a seat, or space whatsoever, right throughout the day.
I have to say, that the Badger beer is better at The Ship and Shovel.
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For such a touristy area this is an excellent pub. Good service, good Badger beers well kept, fairly sensible prices and good mix of clientele.
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What a nice pub. Despite living in London for 15 years I'd never been here. Very good selection of well kept Badger ale and the food was good. Staff very friendly and efficient. Nice touch - got slightly cloudy pint and the landlady was over in a flash apologising, replacing it and giving a lecture on how to serve beer, very nice lady, just like the pub!
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Fine interior decor and decent pint of Badger yesterday evening. The pub has a typically transient London feel to it, but I enjoyed the visit. Staff seemed unusually keen and enthusiastic for a Central London pub.
Worth including in any crawl of the area
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Quite how I have managed to miss this place until now escapes me (since I must have been past it umpteen times over the years). Even though I am not a great fan of Badger beer, the Pickled Partridge went down well, and the interior decor (and the balcony bar upstairs) make it well worth a visit.
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Beautiful interior, impressive array of Badger ales,an ideal refuge for a damp wintry afternoon
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Visited here at a start of a recent pub crawl. Always pleased to see Badger beer on pump. Well worth a visit and it looks good too. Highly recommended.
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Great pub, clean toilets, always a plus, friendly staff, the food and beer (Badger) were excellent.
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What a cracking boozer! There isn't much space, but you have to love the ales. Very friendly service. I'm a fan, what more can I say..?
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I had to post a review as I love this pub! It does get v busy, but wait 10-15mins and you can always get a seat. Good old-style pub, strong ale selection, tradditional food menu. Mixture of civil servants, tourists and mates just out for a decent pint and a catch up.. you can see Big Ben from the window and pre-empt the call for 'time at the bar'!
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Old fashioned pub just outside of Parliament. Great ales but can get very busy as its a small place. Best ale is Hopping Hare!
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Not a bad pub at all when you think it is so close to the Mother of all parliaments and it is visited by so many tourists. I miss the old pub on this site which was SO old fashioned!
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Very olde worlde, well 1950/60s, which makes a change from some of the antiseptic modern refurbishments. Can get very busy with tourists. Good choice of ale. Worth a visit if your're in the area.
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Excellent pub, with good, well kept beers, decent food and great service. It can get busy after 6pm weekdays but it's well worth the effort just to soak up the atmosphere and ambience. I now regard this as my local as I work about 5 minutes walk away and can often be seen propping up the bar.
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A good pub, with some great decorative features, such as the wall-paper (!) which gives it a wonderfully authentic look. The beers are interesting and have a good enough turnover to be fresh. The pub also features a division bell for summoning the MPs to vote (never heard it myself though!)
It's a little unfair to criticise a pub for being jam-packed when it's in an area of London which is probably the most densely populated by tourists, working people and MPs per square foot per hour. One needs to keep a sense of perspective; this pub probably has more that is authentic in its little finger than all of what the pubs and bars of Islington and Clapham can claim altogether.
My recommendation is to go there between lunchtime and five o'clock, or else expect a squeeze, and if MP-spotting is your thing, then this may not be such a bad thing.
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Can't really give this place a rating as whenever I've gone in for a drink, its always - always - been absolutely rammed, with not a seat nor a space to be seen.....But the stone wall outside is nice to sit on and watch tourists eat home-made sandwiches. Quality of drinks can vary drastically. But I'd give the wall a 4, maybe more if its sunny.
anonymous - 29 Dec 2006 11:24 |
Caught lunch crowd during a recent stop.
Not a seat to be had for some time. Eventually managed to grab a stool as my food arrived. Not the most comfortable seating in the world. Ham, eggs and chips were fine but not many places can muck that order up.
Fursty Ferret and the Tanglefoot were both fine. Staff were friendly and talkative which was suprising given the crowds.
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Very busy on a rainy day as you might expect. I like the interior and the staff were friendly. The beers are quite good too.
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This was the first stop on our Sunday pub crawl/ tourist walk. It is located right next to Parliament (Big Ben End) and while crowded wasn't that bad considering one is in the middle of probably the most touristy section of London. This place practically drips atmosphere so I was surprised to here from London Porter that it had been closed for some time. They had three Badger ales on including Badger first gold, TangleFoot, and Fursty Ferret. They also had King and Barnes Sussex bitter on. All the ales were in good condition. I stopped here twice and found the staff to be friendly as well as the folks drinking in the establishment on both occasions. Again, quite surprising as they have to deal with quite a few tourists.
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the nearest you can get to drinking in the house of commons without being there! beautifully refurbished pugin-style interior. it inevitably gets inundated by tourists. nice quieter bar upstairs.
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I was here on Sat Aug 26th, and all the only real ale available was a cloudy Thirsty Ferret. Nice location, nice view of Parliament, but however is charge of keeping the beer needs to do a better job.
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Nice pint of K&B Sussex and was looking forward to the Stinger (organic nettles!) but too hot inside and too busy in the alley with tourists for me. First time visit so will return when it's colder! Looks good inside and staff attentive.
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Gr8 2 see my favourite brewery's ales in London. Had a nice pint of Thirsty Ferret served from a very nice friendly barmaid. Lovely decor but i imagine it can get a bit rammed on a busy day.
My Rating 8/10
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Hall & Woodhouse pub refurbished in the currently very fashionable traditional Victorian style. Well kept and with a decent atmosphere. Can get very crowded with drinkers spilling out into the alley. Decent selection of the Badger, K&B and Gribble range of cask beers served in good condition. Nice pub.
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One of 8 pubs my wife and I visited on our London trip, and the one that turned out to be her favorite. I liked it too, except it was a bit tight (although not particularly crowded). The place was loaded with tourists--I heard fellow Americans, Italians and Japanese--all of whom were on their best behavior. The Tanglefoot and Fursty Ferret were absolutely outstanding, as was the steak pie. And there was no cigarette smoke! But the very best thing of all? There were no obnoxious twats laughing at us!
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Very nice. Good splashes and great decor. Food was OK some reasonably priced food. Did I say great decor and good splashes. ra ra ra
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Smashing pub. Just right for a lunchtime pint, and a good place to start a Whitehall pub crawl.
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I liked this one. Had a good beer, interior is dramatic to say the least.
anonymous - 5 Jan 2006 18:59 |
High Victorian style pub, a recent refurbishment has paid off nicely. Grade II listed pub. Excellent Badger Ales on tap. Well worth a visit if your in the area.
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Very neat and tidy pub, with nice selection of Badger Ales. Looks enormous when approaching from Westminster Underground but only 2 tiny rooms (unless there's an upstairs). I liked it.
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Good decor, attractive bar staff, well-kept ales. You might occasionally spot the odd MP in the upstairs bar, which has cosy alcoves. Get there early for a seat, as it does get crowded.
anonymous - 26 Jul 2005 15:43 |
Lovely looking pub, great decor. Had a great pint of Guinness and had a laugh at the tourists. Had some activists outside making themselves look like twats. Menu looked good will have lunch there one day.
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Beautifully restored pub and a great location - which add up to make it a really busy place at peak times.
The beer's decent and so's the food.
At least half a dozen tourists came in to take photos of the place when I spent an evening here a few weeks ago. Recommended.
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How long has this pub been here ? I used to live in London and thought I knew the Westminster area inside out. But I never heard of this place.
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fantastic pub, planned to go on a pub crawl before getting a train back to newcastle but ended up straying all morning. Interesting decor, good lagers and the regulation backpacker barmaids. They just love it when i tell em I'm the duke of northumberland.
mark - 2 Nov 2004 13:21 |
I heard the bell (6pm) - took me a while to work out what it was.
The bars are tight (in the space sense) downstairs and the tables are invariably taken by civil servants (and ladies who may or may not be their secretaries...) but it's a decent meeting up place.
Tell your pals to meet you "at the pub opposite Big Ben" and you can't go wrong.
Good range of bitters - the German(?) lager seems to be the only one on tap apart from Stella.
Staff attentive and friendly - once saw a matriachial landlady about, giving the impression this was a boozer in the old sense of the word.
And yes, every passing tourist has to peer through the window...
Wullie - 22 Jul 2004 22:06 |
Good pub recently reopened in High Victorian style, three or four real ales, sandwiches made with fresh bread not soggy, good on a spring Sunday for watching tourists go by.
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Alright for a beer after work - really friendly staff but can be a bit crowded. Not a pub for a nightout
Jack - 20 May 2004 16:46 |
New pub just opened opposite the Palace of Westmminster, on Bridge Street.
Pub spread over two floors; public & saloon bar and baclony bar upstairs. Decor is in the style of late 19th century. And has been done tastefully. Which makes a surprising change. And as with most pubs within a *very* short distance of Parliament the pub has it's own division bell.
Good range of beers and ales on sale. The Stella was a little flat though.
Can see this place bcoming a "bolt hole" for all the reprobates from across the road.
Rob - 16 Jan 2004 09:25 |
