The Dog & Duck, Soho, W1

It looks like my recent Friday evening visit to the Dog & Duck was just before its closure for a refurb, which makes a change because I normally end up trying to visit pubs the day after a refurb closure. This is a tiny Nicholsons boozer with a small bar area in one end where the serving counter faces standing room. In the other side of the pub is a small seating area with mainly banquettes, all tables were taken during a recent Friday evening visit, but the street outside was far busier. In fact, the amount of people drinking outside could probably have filled the pub twice over. Premium and mainstream keg options were available, and I counted seven hand pumps that were drawing Nicholsons’ Pale, London Pride, St Austell’s Proper Job, Adnams’ Ghost Ship and Rosies Pig cider, the latter probably being the tipple of choice of a punter who dropped their guts and cleared the bar. I think this pub is probably best appreciated at a quieter time when Johnny Fartpants isn’t making the air chewable.

A well regarded, street corner pub in the heart of Soho, it looks very traditional from the outside with it’s attractive gold signage and dark stonework, although it’s considerably smaller internally than might be expected, being quite long and narrow. It’s divided in to two areas internally with the bar counter at the front which is devoid of any seating other than a couple of high stools alongside a ledge. Seating at the rear is also very restricted with only three or four tables, so the chances of actually finding anywhere to sit are fairly slim. Fortunately we were eating and had booked a table in the upstairs dining room. Décor wise it’s quite impressive with red painted embossed wallpaper on the ceiling, elaborate gold tiling on much of the walls and large branded mirrors elsewhere. All the timberwork was dark wood and gold candelabra style light fittings hung from the ceiling. Beers on tap were London Pride, Doom Bar, Nicholson’s Pale Ale and Northern Monk Eternal, whilst Hogsback TEA was apparently coming soon. Cider’s meanwhile were Rosie’s Pig and Sandford Orchard’s Devon Mist. All in all, a lovely little pub and well worth popping in.

This was part of my planned tour of heritage pubs in London, so I really wanted to like this pub. It's a Nicholson's pub with some very nice tiles, mirrors and woodwork (see link to Camra's heritage site below). It also has what my notes made at the timne described as "impossible to avoid pop music - loudspeakers in every corner". There were four beers on the bar (see photo) and I went for Black Sheep Fresh Start, which was only just up to scratch (a fairly generous NBSS 3). Date of visit: 17th January 2023