Low Res Viewpub is an awful idea, but not all the pubs involved are as hideous as John suggests. Well The Hendon in Hendon is – but any pub named after the town it is in must always be viewed upon with suspicion. Is their only claim to fame that they are in that town? Can they not even think of one coloured beast to name themselves after. I have been to the Hendon and it is poor.
Not so the Sherlock Holmes however. Don’t get me wrong – I am not claiming pub canonisation for the Holmes – its just off Charing Cross which puts it pretty much in tourist central. However I had a few Sunday afternoon beverages there recently and it is really a rather pleasant if unassuming pub. Firstly it was surprisingly cheap – or the bar staff were surprisingly poor at adding up. Secondly they do a good pint of Pride in there, which after the awful stuff I had previously been drinking south of the river came as a bless’d relief (I’ll tell you about The Old Fire Station some other time- just don’t go there in the intervening period). And whilst this was a tourist haven, it got the golf cap variety of American middle-agers who are more than amused by Brit binge drinking, especially in ladies.
Anyway any pub called the Sherlock Holmes which is not in the Baker Street environs cannot be all bad.
Vis a vis Tom’s piece on Edinburgh drinking I can not concur enough. I was in Scotlands fair city about a month ago and found that only the nasty pubs seemed to stay open late. The nicer boozers, which were well out of the centre, had clientelle which drifted off at about 10:30. What’s more, my Dad’s favourite pub which had been recomended to me (The Three Tuns) had been squatted on by a Bella Pasta and closed down. To add insult to what I believe is injury, a blackboard outside the barred door suggested that I might like to try a pint in the nearby Firkin. Shame.