The Victoria, St Albans Central, St. Albans

I careered into the Victoria just before 23:00 on a recent Saturday night after an extensive pub crawl around St Albans. The last pub I end up in after a crawl is usually near to the local train station so therefore not very good, but I enjoyed my half an hour or so in here and was made to feel very welcome. The décor is bland like many recently refurbished pubs, but there are a couple of plasma screens for watching Sky Sports and during my visit there was a disco in progress that was going down well with the thirty-somethings in attendance. There is a dartboard in situ, but I decided not to bother playing as I was having trouble focusing and the spinning disco lights didn’t really help! The bar was stocked with standard draught products alongside three hand pumps. One of these was unused, but Deuchars was available alongside some very well kept Doom Bar. There is a decked area at the rear that also has a plasma screens for watching the sports whilst having a smoke. I liked it in here and would have no problem returning.

I came in here once at the end of a pub crawl some time ago for no reason other than we had 15 minutes to spare before catching a train. It was a pretty grim place, horribly modernized with little character and a rather dull, depressing feel to it. When a pubs redeeming feature is that it sells Greene King IPA you know it doesn't have a lot going for it although even that particular mispleasure seemed to be lacking from the more recent reviews. Apart from my already half cut mate trying to chat up some tarted up bird, my Glass House experience was pretty forgetful. Why we didn't go in the nearby Robin Hood instead is one of life's little mysteries.