The White Swan, St Albans Central, St. Albans

Oscar’s is an L shaped pub that at some point has had the guts ripped out of it leaving a rather bland affair. Three hand pumps can be found on the bar, but one of these was unused and the Abbot was off leaving only Courage Best. There is a standard draught selection and the Guinness was well poured by an affable young barman during my recent Saturday night visit. The other pubs in the area were fairly busy, but there were only a handful of people in here and some of them seemed to have turned up with the guy that was being paid to play guitar. There is a dartboard to the left of the entrance but it looked out of action as there were some tables and a cigarette machine on the oche. Food is advertised for lunchtimes, but I didn’t see any menus for pricing due to my late visit. This isn’t a pub that I will purposely seek out again.

Until recently, this city centre pub was known as the more traditional White Swan although it was locally known as the Mucky Duck. Dating from 1820, it was bought by top Savile Row tailor Craig Featherston, a man noted for dressing the rich and famous but apparently not too much savvy in the preservation of pub heritage. Since my previous visit in its White Swan days the pub has lost at least 2 ales, a bar billiards table, dartboard and the jukebox (replaced by the insipid strains of Herts FM). The newly acquired name of Oscars is in tribute to Oscar Wilde whosse cheap photo (the same photo) pops up on the walls half a dozen times through the pub. I am unaware of any connections between Oscar Wilde and St Albans and will assume that this is little more than some marketing or image gimmick which to be honest doesn’t wash with me (or several others from reading reports elsewhere). Internally it is pleasant enough with bare floors, white paneled walls and still a relatively pubby feel but any lacking any real character or atmosphere (there were bareky half a dozen people on a Saturday afternoon with the High Street 20 yards away). There is a standard range of drinks with Courage Directors being the only ale (£3), hardly sufficient to tempt the ale trail hordes that flock to the pubs of St Albans on a regular basis. There are still 4 hand pumps and in the past there have been some decent guest ales found here so why they now choose to limit such a product in a city that is an ale stronghold seems commercially naive. Whilst the White Swan has obviously had its ups and downs in recent years, it had many assets, not least its location in the centre of the city, and I can’t help feel that the new image won’t do the place any real favours in the long run.