Pelt Trader, Cannon Street, EC4

A large square bar confronts you after entering the Pelt Trader; adorning the wall behind are a range of taps dispensing ale & craft keg in a style familiar to patrons of the Euston Tap or Holborn Whippet, each accompanied by a mini blackboard advising name & brewer, price and ABV. I tried to count and came up with 8 or so ale taps and about 16 or so for lager and craft. The bar offers a good selection from some of London's new micros, such as Kernel, Brew By Numbers, Redemption and Camden and at fairly reasonable prices (£3.60 - £4.00 a pint or so). The keg beers are a little pricier, as I'm sure you'll be expecting if you've been keeping up with the scene, but still cheaper than many similar outlets. I tried a selection from across the range and really can't complain. The room however, could hardly be more charmless. The glass door and neon sign facing Dowgate Hill give no hint of the barren interior, with a number of narrow tables and high stools arranged around the perimeter as well a single alcove nearer the door. The walls are principally 'decorated' with electric cables, sometimes hidden in aluminium ducting, often not. Oh, and there's a canoe hanging from the ceiling. If you're confined to a wheelchair, you won't be coming here: down 3 or so steps to get in and up & down a similar number if you're visiting the toilets which appear to be in an adjacent archway. Given the crowds and money passing through, there must be scope for a good 'craft beer' bar within the City. The Pelt Trader however isn't it. As this isn't an area I'm usually around, I'm not so bothered. If, however, I worked in the area, I think I'd be rather disappointed overall.

A previous reviewer comments “The bar is only open Monday to Friday, which can lead to a restricted ale choice if drinking in here on a Friday evening.” Well let me assure you this place suffers from restrictive ale choice any evening of the week if my recent Wednesday and Thursday evening visits are anything to go by. Four people last night working the square serving area which fronts the back aluminium wall festooned with all the beer taps, but it was all they could do to keep up with serving those waiting and rescuing glasses so that they had something to put beer in. Consequently there was no effort being made to replace the barrels as they run out and by 8.00PM late night there was only ales at 3% or above 6% on unless you wanted craft lagers, forcing a move on earlier than anticipated. Well described by previous reviewers, this is a soul less place with terrible acoustics that hanging a canoe from the ceiling can’t really impart any character into, and frankly wouldn’t get a second look if it wasn’t for the fact that Dowgate Hill outside is largely a pedestrianized thoroughfare allowing a decent alfresco space and the beers are very good and reasonably priced as mentioned below. Included in the real ale offerings last night were Adnams Old Ale and Trinity and Fellowship from the Redemption Brewery and all were well kept. A good use of train archway space and worth popping in to see what is on if passing but not a Craft Ale destination venue like some of the other recent additions to the London drinking scene IMHO.

Bar in a railway arch. Stark white painted cave. Terrible acoustic meant the barman had trouble hearing our order.20 taps with 6 real ales. Same dispense as the Holborn Whippet( presumably) with what looks to me like a urinal trough to catch the drips. Very reasonable prices for the area and the beers I tried were in good condition. Bin Laden would feel at home here but it was opening night so may be they need to add more furnishings to give it a better feel. Will call again.