The Exmouth Arms, EC1

Original Courage tiled exterior with a bare boarded/exposed brick front area and a more decorated area at the back. 4 real ales and "craft keg" served. Food served.

This impressive former Courage pub stands out from a distance thanks to its excellent green tile façade which is well worth taking in before entering. Inside, you find an opened out interior with the bar along the rear wall. The right hand side is more spacious, with large plain windows down two sides with some nice coloured diamond pattern stained panes above and fixed bench seating beneath. Standard tables and chairs fill the rest of the space, which was crammed full on a recent Friday evening visit. The rear wall is bare brick and has some surreal art works hung on it, whilst next to this, the bar has a dark wood counter and a bar back that is a mix of exposed brickwork and nice glazed tiles with a lot of pump clips on show. To the left of the bar, there is a smaller space painted in warm shades of red and with more unusual pieces of art on show. There are some smarter seating options on this side and a reasonable amount of standing room, but it was notably more cramped here than over to the right. There was music playing throughout my visit at a fairly loud volume, but it didn't stand a chance against the incredible din created by the large crowd, which was amplified by a lack of soft furnishings, to almost unbearable levels. I had two attempts at visiting this pub. The first was abandoned after getting stuck behind a row of highly annoying bar blockers and then being repeatedly ignored by the frankly useless bar staff who served people at random, irrespective of how long they had been waiting. After popping round the corner to the Wilmington, I came back for a second attempt and thankfully found the bar area a bit quieter and got served pretty much straight away (probably at the expense of someone who had been waiting far longer than me). Four handpulls offered Allgates Seven Feet, Hop Stuff Oatmeal Stout, Revolutions Red Right Hand and London Beer Factory Chelsea Blonde. My pint of the Seven Feet was pretty good, but the effort to actually get hold of it diminished my enjoyment somewhat. I can see why this pub is held in high regard by some, as the place serves good beer and has a reasonably pleasing interior with decent seating options. However, I found the service next to useless and the place all but deafening with a large crowd inside. I'd be tempted to give this place another try, perhaps at a quieter time of the day, but based on this visit, I won't be rushing to do so.

An attractive green tiled pub indeed, I used to drink around here pre-gentrification and this was a bit of a duffers' pub which we avoided. All change now and it's full of young hipsters. The interior's all bare brick, bulkhead lights and some exposed steel girders. Mr Duck's not wrong when he says that this place is gloomy - I could barely see my hand in front of my face and the overall impression isn't helped by the rather loud music. My pint of Blackjack was fine but steep at £2.20 a half. This isn't one to avoid but it's really not my sort of place so I doubt I'll return.

A good looking green tiled pub , as mentioned below inside it was one of the most gloomily lit pubs I have visited ,rivaling the Crosse Keyes in Covent Garden,that aside its a decent pub with four interesting cask beers available although my choice of Revolution Go Go was past its best, some interesting Craft Keg beers were also on offer, I intend to return somewhen.