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The Montagu Pyke (Lloyds No.1 Bar), Soho, WC2
WC2
WC2H 0DT
Pub Type
Lloyds No. 1 (J D Wetherspoon)Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about The Montagu Pyke (Lloyds No.1 Bar)
This is a monsterous 'spoons and best left to the tourists.House in what in latter years was the Marquee Club (but not the original) and before that a cinema,you can walk through from the Charing Cross Road to Greek Street.Both ends are at street level with an occasional keg only bar at the Greek Street end while the main servery and most of the seating is at mosh pit level.There is a balcony which is calmer but the noise when full is intollerable,and service can be slow.Identikit 'spoons furniture everywhere,it's souless.
Besides the trio of doom,the guests on my visit were Windsor & Eton Guardsman and Boatman together with Hop Union Moose River (dull brew NBSS 2).Food pricing takes into account the tourist location,this is a 'spoons to avoid.I won't be back.
On 7th August 2022
- rating: 3
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Montagu Pyke (Lloyds No.1 Bar)
A Spoons (well, a Lloyds technically) in the building that was the second incarnation of the Marquee Club (the odd musical artefact is on display as are pictures of artists who didn’t play this venue!) so you can have half a guess as to how the interior pans out – down a few steps to a sunken main bar with a small section beyond. Fairly modern colour scheme, cream and red with purple lighting but not much in the way interesting internal architecture. Due to the location the place gets seriously busy at weekends and the furniture is packed in tight enough to make a battery hen complain. Six pumps with four guest ales. Sadly my Windsor & Eton Knot was tired and hazy (NBSS 1.5). It’s good to know it’s here but won’t be a Spoons I’d seek out specifically for a return.
On 11th July 2019
- rating: 5
[User has posted 5089 recommendations about 5072 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blackthorn _ left this review about The Montagu Pyke (Lloyds No.1 Bar)
A good sized Wetherspoon’s in what appears to be a former concert hall, first impressions were that it was quite small with no real ale on tap. Very odd I thought, until I realised that I had actually come in the back entrance from Greek Street and this was a secondary bar counter with another, larger one further on in the main body of the pub.
Once you get past this small back bar area, it opens out in to a large double height room, with a rounded ceiling that had a few porthole style windows in and a mezzanine level floor that had a glass balustrade to make the most of the views over the ground floor area. A couple of gig posters for bands such as The Who were on the walls. Perhaps they played here back in the day. A very large projector screen took up almost the whole of an end wall, although fortunately this was not in use on our visit. Décor wise it was fairly unremarkable, with a mixture of cream and deep red paintwork and a polished wood floor in the main part of the pub. A number of wooden seating booths were down one side.
Beers on tap were London Pride, Bellhaven’s Robert Burns, Doom Bar, Peerless Lottie Dod, Fuggle Dee Dum and Scrum Down. Ciders meanwhile were well represented with Thatcher’s Gold, Magners, Strongbow and Strongbow Dark Fruit.
On 2nd February 2018
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1948 recommendations about 1861 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Montagu Pyke (Lloyds No.1 Bar)
Huge sprawling pub that was rammed solid on a saturday night,in fact it was a bit of a cattle market, however a good selection of beer with the Titanic Stout probably the pick at £ 3.40 a pint. I have been in worse places.
On 5th March 2016
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1872 recommendations about 1845 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
hondo . left this review about The Montagu Pyke (Lloyds No.1 Bar)
Large spoons(Lloyds) with a split level interior. Originally a cinema then the marquee club with posters of bands that played on display. 6 real ales served.
On 25th April 2015
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2883 recommendations about 2820 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Peter Rydings left this review about The Montagu Pyke (Lloyds No.1 Bar)
One of the better spoons had a good meal it was steak night so two steaks and a bottle of wine for less than £20 can not do better than that in London
On 6th August 2014
- rating: 8
[User has posted 948 recommendations about 917 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john gray left this review about The Montagu Pyke (Lloyds No.1 Bar)
I don't go much on the Central London Wetherspoon chain but this was nice and bright.Quite noisy with the chatter of people enjoying themselves so that's a good sign.4 beers I noted were Jennings-cockle warmer,cali -auld aquaintance ,b+t -crooked hooker and Prescott -track record.The two I tried were in good condition.Liked it a lot.
On 25th January 2014
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1023 recommendations about 1009 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about The Montagu Pyke (Lloyds No.1 Bar)
We popped in to see if there were any beers to tempt us. There were six ales on hand pump, luckily enough there was Wolf Brewery Jackall, so this made our visit a bit more interesting.
On 8th January 2014
- rating: 5
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Aqualung . left this review about The Montagu Pyke (Lloyds No.1 Bar)
This place had a brief claim to fame as The Marquee club from 1988 to 1996 before being taken over by Wetherspoons. Of course the "proper" Marquee was at number 90, Wardour Street where just about every London based sixties and seventies band played at some time or other. It seemed a bit contrived therefore to have sixties era pictures of Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix around the place.
It's a Lloyds No 1 even though most of them are virtually indistinguishable from standard Spoons during the day. It looks as though this place could well have loud music playing of an evening.
The original use as a cinema is obvious as you enter and go through a small front area with tables and chairs (the Foyer), then descend into the cinema area where the main bar is on the left. This large room has a wooden floor and not a lot of seating for a Spoons. There are stairs leading up to the toilets and a small area of tables and chairs. I presume this is where the projector room was. Right at the back there is an entrance to another bar which I didn't bother to investigate.
Six handpumps is pretty poor for a place this size and although there was no GK IPA or Ruddles, there were four beers that are not on the current guest ale list, two from the Marston's stable (Banks's Sunbeam and Wychwood Bountiful), London Pride and Adnam's Topaz. This meant there was just a single proper guest ale the uninspiring Beartown Bearly Literate (£3.15) which was in decent nick.
Given the poor choice of ales and the Cental London prices I wouldn't return here.
On 28th September 2013
- rating: 4
[User has posted 2143 recommendations about 2143 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Montagu Pyke (Lloyds No.1 Bar)
Given its former life as a cinema and music venue, this place is always going to be a cavern. It used to be a rather soul-less Wetherspoons (the Moon under Water), then a rather soul-less Lloyds No. 1 and has seemingly now been re-branded back to a regular but still rather soul-less 'spoons. Nothing much seems to have changed, but I still recommend looking for seats in the small upstairs area if you want to hear what your companions are saying. Beerwise, there are six handpumps on the main bar (but the others at the much less obvious bar further back towards the back entrance from Greek Street seem to have vanished). Mostly usual suspects, but you'll usually find an interesting guest (such as Vale VPA, £3.15, on my latest visit).
On 30th June 2013
- rating: 5
[User has posted 8117 recommendations about 8117 pubs]