The Barley Mow, Marylebone, W1

Tucked away down one of the many side streets in Marylebone, this is a lovely heritage pub with a very unusual interior for Central London. You enter into a fairly straightforward main bar area comprising an L-shaped space with a dark wood servery on the rear wall. Banquette and low stool seating is available along the front and right hand sides and the walls have tongue and groove panelling decorated with pump clips, a nice Fullers mirror, a fine portrait of the pub and a TV screen which was switched off in favour of a drab selection of pop music. Over to the left, some attractive mid-height panelled screens along the end of the servery have been used to create two private snugs, each with their own door, accessed by a passageway down the left side of the pub. The snugs are pretty basic with simple seating, hooks for coats and bags and access to the servery but not much else. It’s also perhaps a bit misleading to describe them as ‘private’ – most people will be able to poke their head over the top of the panels to have a look inside. To the rear left there is a final small seating area, again with bar access, in a smartly carpeted space with comfy, if somewhat limited, seating. This seemed like a very pleasant place to enjoy a few drinks, especially as the front part of the pub was packed out for someone’s work leaving do. There is no garden but a decent sized area had been fenced off to the front of the pub, creating the usual London al-fresco drinking scene. There were six ales on the go here on my mid-week visit – Black Sheep Bitter, Fullers London Pride, Gales Seafarers, Sharps Doom Bar, XT2 and West Berks Mister Chubbs. I also noticed a few Camden beers plus London Pride on keg dispense, although I wasn’t able to figure out if the latter was available for the same price as the cask. The bar staff were friendly and dealt well with the large crowd at the bar, serving up a rather nice pint of the Mister Chubbs in the process. This is a lovely old pub with a very interesting layout thanks to the little snugs down one side of the building. It was a bit of a spur of the moment addition to my crawl, but I’m certainly glad I popped in. It’s a great place to have a nose around with some decent beer and friendly, welcoming staff and I’ll hope to give it another go at a more peaceful time in the near future.

A pleasant enough pub a couple of blocks away from Marylebone High Street, it doesn’t have quite the Victorian grandeur of some other central London hostelries, but is nonetheless quite traditional and has no doubt remained unchanged for some time. It has an attractive appearance with a number of hanging baskets outside, and there is also some outside seating although according to a notice on the door the times that this can be used has recently been restricted due to complaints from local residents. The pub consists of a larger bar at the front and a small snug at the rear. The front bar has wood flooring and two tone wood panelling on the walls, along with a number of beer mats and an old Fuller’s, Smith & Turner mirror. An interesting feature was two enclosed wooden booths to the left of the bar counter where you could sit in private but still access the bar to get your drinks refilled. The snug at the rear had a carpeted floor and included a couple of shelves of books that could be swapped. A notice advertised a Saturday quiz night, although by the time we arrived at 9:30pm there was no sign of it and the pub was fairly quiet. Food is apparently offered on lunch times and a small board offered a selection of burgers, wraps, chilli and pies at around a fiver. Beers on tap were London Pride, Kings, Dark Star Festival, Oscar Wilde and Gale’s Spring Sprinter. The solitary cider was Aspall’s Suffolk.

Nice traditional pub if you like this style.Weird Tardis style wooden boxes dominate the left of the bar.Grotty toilets.The beer choice makes up for faults with 5 handpumps and the 2 beers I had from Mighty Oak and Sharps were good.Friendly staff.Worth a revisit soon.

A small side street pub just off the southern section of Baker Street, the bar is immediately ahead on entering the centre and only remaining set of doors. Two sets remain unused suggesting that once this small room was divided into three, like many London pubs were but three tiny spaces they would've been. The drinking boxes to the left on entering are a fascinating relic of a byegone age, I took a peek inside, leather benches and apart from a direct approach to the bar, total privacy, an important aspect of Victorian drinking. The walls are almost completely boarded in tongue and grooved style, upper portions light coloured, darker below. Wood flooring to the front of the bar with the wing areas carpeted. Seating has none of the modern foibles, wooden pew style benches, banquettes and small and larger bar stools. Décor includes a large Fuller Smith and Turner mirror and a few tin beer trays hanging off the panelled walls. Loads of pump clips from previous guests on the right hand side wall. The pub claims to be Marylebone's oldest, not convinced, pub claims are ten a penny (usually ghost related) but this part of town has been around a long time so I'm taking it with a pinch of salt. Food is served, I didn't spot any formal menus but a chalkboard listed lunchtime snacks of the proper old pub staples of pies (ok posh Pieminister ones at least with gravy), toasties and hot dogs plus home made hot pot for just £4.50, sadly not available today, I half expected to see Betty Turpin from the Rovers Return around the back when I saw that listed. The beer range is decent and on this visit from my experience well kept, Hop Back Summer Lightning plus their Crop Circle, Dark Star Sunburst, Mighty Oak Back of the Net plus two clipped with Fuller's London Pride. Outdoor seating to the pavement, there is a regular Saturday evening quiz, and they have a telly, showing tennis at the time. A decent spot well worthy of a punt and seems miles away from busy Marylebone Rd and Baker St.