The Bell of Hampstead, NW3

This pub has a rather uninspiring ale selection, with Adnam’s Southwold Bitter, Spitfire and Deuchars IPA on. The Deuchars (£2 a half) turned out to be rank, but readily exchanged for something drinkable. The tables all had single page menus on them, held down by little tea lights. They do an express lunch during the week for a fiver a go, including such things as the sandwich of the day, or Cajun chicken wrap, all with chips. The standard burger and chips on the main menu is £10.95. This is an old wedge shaped corner site Victorian pub. As you enter through the corner door you face the sharp end of the wedge shaped central servery, splitting the room in two. The bar back cum stillion looks original, and at the back end of each side of the room the floor has some attractive tiling. But the most unusual feature is the ceiling, decorated as it is with what looks like glazed green panels surrounded by wooden frames. I’ve never seen the like of it before. At the back of each spur of the room is a marble and tiled fireplace, and the wallpaper here is most unusual being parrot-themed. There’s a small garden at the back on the left. Leaving aside the unusual features, I found the pub a little too impersonal and barn-like for my taste, but that could be a product of the trademark high Victorian ceilings. The furnishings are comfortable enough, and it is a very bright room. It’s certainly good enough for a swift one or two, but is not really the sort of place I would choose to spend any length of time.

Occupying a prominent position at a sharp road junction near Hampstead’s Royal Free Hospital is The White Horse, a large wedge shaped Victorian pub with the trademark tall arched windows running down the building’s exterior on each street. Inside is a fairly typical, spacious, opened out former Victorian pub with a central island bar which retains original glass inserts in the gantry. The architectural highlight is undoubtedly the splendid and unusual enamel panelled decorative ceiling which covers the entire ceiling area throughout the pub. Suspended from the ceiling are some of the large retro lampshades that seem to be very de rigeur in pubs like this. On a wall down one end of the room is a fine collection of ornate gilded mirrors. Furniture is fairly basic wooden tables and chairs with several long butchers block style tables clearly designed for large groups. A number of TV’s dotted round the pub were showing live football at a quiet sound level – this is certainly no sports bar – some tuned to Cardiff v West Ham on terrestrial TV, with others showing Newcastle v Sunderland on Sky. By choosing carefully where to position your bar stool, should you so choose, it was possible to keep an eye on both games simultaneously. Notably, although food appears to be a significant part of the offering, there’s no dedicated areas set aside and, on my visit, there was an unusual sprinkling of customers throughout the pub, with some clearly here for the football sharing space with family groups and the usual crowd of professional thirty somethings enjoying Sunday lunch. Except on Sunday, it seems that a Thai menu dominates – presumably a separate subcontracted operation, as is often the case. Real ales on were Doom Bar, Black Sheep, Spitfire and Caledonian 2.8% ( is that the ABV of the beer?). I didn’t detect much real ale trade or interest and the Doom Bar – at a pricey £ 3.85p – wasn’t brilliant. I found it difficult to conclude as to where this pub is trying to position itself – it seems to be trying to be all things to all men – and it appears to be a classic example of how an old style public and saloon bar format would be preferable. Door positioning would suggest that this was previously the case. I may pop in again if passing by, but it’s not worth going out of your way to get to