The Blue Posts, W1

Traditional Soho boozer, with two small rooms on the ground floor and a separate bar, quite small, on the first floor, reached by scaling treacherously slippery and twisting stairs. The first floor bar contains an electric piano but it was thankfully mute when we visited. Four ales on – I reverted to Hobgoblin, one of my favourites, and found it in very good condition but only just. It's a friendly pub with a nice crowd, a bit studenty though, pleasant (albeit a little odd) staff, decent beer and a reasonably priced bar menu. Well worth including on a crawl.

A popular pub just a short stroll from Leicester Square, it’s a traditional street corner boozer that was full to capacity on a recent Thursday evening visit, with little standing room never mind anywhere to sit. The barman was unusual being of Oriental extraction and having a Mohican haircut and lots of body piercings (not that any of those are especially unusual in themselves, but it’s an unusual combination). The main bar area has old wooden boards on the floor and a continuous run of windows that run along two sides right around the corner. There are a few tables and chairs around the perimeter and some high stools at the bar, but otherwise seating options are fairly limited. Plenty of wooden shelves and an old brick arch formed a backdrop to the bar and there was a large mirror at one end. I believe there may have been further seating upstairs, although we did not investigate this. The menu looked to be a typical “pub grub” affair with various jackets, omelettes and salads to choose from as well as a good selection of sandwiches. Most of the mains were around the £5 - £6 mark which seems reasonable given the location, but we didn’t sample anything so can’t comment on the quality. Beers on tap were a little disappointing with just Summer Lightning and London Pride. A further two pumps were unused. Ciders fared slightly better, although the choice was still fairly uninspiring - Strongbow, Magners Golden Draught and Symonds Founders Reserve.

This is a simple, small pub down a little alleyway close to Piccadilly Circus tube station and Chinatown. You enter into a compact wooden floored room which has limited seating due to the space constraints, although they have done well to squeeze in as many tables as they have. A lot of old photographs line the walls and there is a collection of mugs, many with amusing slogans, behind the bar. To the right of the servery the room extends slightly, creating room for a couple more tables and what looked to me like a topiary Womble. Stairs lead up to a square dining room with some standard tables and chairs and one long banquette running under the windows which are blocked by a row of large plants. Some Asian style tapestries are hung on the walls, but can’t quite brighten up what is essentially a drab room. There is a bar upstairs but without hand pulls, although the barmaid was prepared to take orders for ale and have them sent up in the dumb waiter. Music was playing quietly in the background whilst I was there but I didn’t spot any TV screens or slot machines. The four hand pulls downstairs were conspicuously bare save for one badged with a London Pride clip. Having said that, there were plenty of pump clips dotted around the bar back which suggests that there is usually a better selection. This was confirmed by a blackboard upstairs which noted that Hop Back Summer Lightning and Taylor Landlord had been on recently. The Pride, priced at £3.60 a pint, was pretty disappointing and my half was more than enough. I’m not sure if I caught this place at the wrong time but I didn’t really enjoy my visit. The lack of space meant that the bar was blocked by people on bar stools and having managed to get a drink, it was poor enough to make me wish I hadn’t bothered. The ground floor room does have a certain degree of charm but I’m not sure I’d seek this place out again.