The Gunmakers, Marylebone, W1

Small but grand pub near Baker Street, light wood floor. high ceiling, padded red leather benches around the outside. Various sketches & photographs around the walls, there is an unused fireplace in the middle of one wall & a pillar in front of the bar for perching around. Nice tidy pub with four well kept real ales. There is a lucky black pub cat. Best pint of Trumans Runner I have had (though tended to avoid it previously)

The building has a very pleasing exterior,although the etched glass windows on the ground floor are often obscured at busy times by a crowd of external drinkers(and smokers) who gather around a space heater.The interior is a simple square room with a leg to the right,with bare floorboards but quite upmarket red leather backed benches and chairs around the perimeter with the bar running along a rear wall.The flatscreens do create a large diversion and should really be switched off if no one is paying attention.A Liverpool goal in the Europa league match being screened when I was in wasnt noticed by anyone apart from me,thankfully the volume was on mute. At the bar there are four handpumps which on my trip were drawing St Austell Tribute (permanent) and guests of Mondo Ryder Pale Ale & James Brown Ale and Trumans Bold as Brass.All three guests were in good nick justifying the 2016 GBG entry and it was good to see three locally brewed ales available. There is an intruiging sign on the wall to The Winchester Suite through a side door,but the fire door has a combination lock,so I couldn't investigate if the ghost of Arthur Daley inhabits what is a private function room on the first floor. The pub gets busy immediately afterwork,but was calm enough by 8pm so consider your arrival time with care if crowds bother you.Food available until 9.30pm,but most punters on my trip were just drinking. I thought the ale range was pretty good and would happily use the pub again for a decent pint or two.

Seeking a pint early on New Years Eve, we made for the Gunmakers. Almost everything was off, bar a very hoppy blonde and a slightly darker bitter. We orderer 3 pints of the bitter but recieved just one as that too went off. Settling for 2 pints of the blonde, we sat back to enjoy our beer, but were soon asked to move so that the stage could be set up for the live band later in the night. Staff seemed to be pretty miserable, from the Eastern European bar maid to the huge bouncer playing with his phone. Not really a welcoming environment, made worse by the lack of beer. Interestingly, the flyer for the New years Eve party declared "real ales on tap" someone was going to be disappointed! Probably won't be going back.

Smallish pub tucked away on the way back to Baker Street from Marylebone High Street and one I’ve utilised for a decent pint of something different to the usual London protagonists when in this part of town. And in that respect it did not disappoint again the other night. Harveys seasonal ale Kiss, Darkstar Pale Ale, Hackney Brewery Best Bitter and St Austells Tribute (which had just gone) were on the four pumps and the Hackney Best and Darkstar brew were well kept pints. As mentioned below it is mainly one square space in front of the bar with seating round the three sides and the front of the used for vertical drinking. And then a further smaller space stretching back to the right of the bar. Beer has always been decent and it is comfortable enough. But due to its smallish size, it gets a bit noisy when there is a few in, and you can’t help but get the full conversations from the bar flys and even from the tables opposite. So after my recent visit last week I am now fully genned up on the price of flights from Dublin and why Premier league referees should be equipped with Smart phones to play back contentious decisions…yawn!. And for such a small pub , it has three large flat screen teles on the main 3 walls away from the bar, meaning that there is nowhere you can sit without being in full view of a large screen. Yes, useful when there is something worth watching on, but bloody distracting when they insist on showing a meaningless La Liga game at 10.30 in the evening.