Bricklayers Arms, Fitzrovia, W1

This secretive little Sam Smiths pub can be found tucked away round the back of Tottenham Court Road. The exterior is rather quaint and charming and it’s comforting to see ample brickwork on display as the name impies. The interior is divided into front and rear basr on tehb ground floor and an upstairs lounge bar. The small front bar is quite simple but is very neat and tidy with leather banquette seating either side of the entrance porch, dark paneled walls.and a bare tiled floor. A corridor to the right of the bar leads to a compact room with bare wooded floors and a single table around a curved banquette. A ledge along on wall has a few stools and there is amazingly a dart board, quite rare for the West End especially within such cramped surrounds. A small service hatch opens into the main bar. Upstairs, the carpeted lounge bar opens during peak hours and is a little bit more spacious with its own wells tocked bar. The window bays double up for extra seating although the awkward and impractical seat at the top of the stairs does baffle me a bit. The general décor contains displays providing everything you ever needed to know about bricks but were afraid to ask with drawings, diagrams, elevations and descriptions regarding everything brickwork. Whilst there is a good selection of Sam Smiths beers (I think virtually the whole range was avaibale) but there are no hand pumps so everything is in keg form. As is the norm for Sam Smiths pubs, prices are so low you sometimes just don’t care. I have used the Bricklayers many times over the years and always found it friendly and civilized albeit somewhat uncomfortable when crowded as it does inevitably get when service can be a bit slow. This little corner of the West End has a few little pubs that must be leaning towards receiving some kind of heritage status and the Bricklayers is well worth a visit just to see how pubs once to be before the interior designers had their day.

Randomness Guide to London - Bricklayers Arms entry

Randomness Guide to London - Bricklayers Arms entry

This is a small Sam Smiths pub, but it is worth a look around as it'll only take 30 seconds, which is 4 minutes and 30 seconds less time than it took me to be served. I wouldn't have minded, but a bloke standing behind me was served before me. On enquiry the barmaid thought that I had already been served, she was the only one working the bar. This is not the best SS have to offer.

Tucked away off Rathbone Place and probably doesn't get much passing trade. There is a small front bar with bench seating around the sides and a few tables. The even smaller back bar has a few stools just one table and a dartboard, there's also a serving hatch to the bar which looked as if it was still used. Upstairs is a pleasant lounge with sofas and armchairs that feels a bit like walking into someone's front room. It does have it's own bar upstairs but I imagine this is only opened during busy times.