The Rugby Tavern, Bloomsbury, WC1

This is a Shepherd Neame house, with Master Brew, Spitfire and Canterbury Jack on when I was in there. It’s now a single-room pub, but the central island bar plus unused doors indicate the original multi-room nature of the pub. There are a couple of sofas tucked away in a corner not annoying anyone, but otherwise seating was pretty comfortable. The Canterbury Jack tasted fine; the food was the usual non gastro-pub fare at typical prices. It was fairly quiet on a Wednesday lunchtime, with one group of a around a dozen workers enjoying some sort of team-building exercise, plus me and another couple of punters. This is another of those slightly above average, decent if unremarkable off-the-beaten-track pubs that are not really worth going out of your way to find, but OK for a pint if you happen to passing nearby.

This is a nice enough Shepherd Neame boozer with Late Red, Master Brew and Spitfire being the ale choices alongside their usual draught selection. There is another bar upstairs, but it was closed during my week night visit due to the pub being very quiet. The back ground music was decent and at a good volume and I spotted a plasma screen that was showing muted Sky News, but I didn’t spot any signs for Sky Sports which I found odd in a pub with Rugby memorabilia on the walls which is called the Rugby Tavern. The barman was friendly enough and the pub is spacious with some character and I would return here again even though I’m not a big fan of Shep pubs.