Shakespeare's Head, Soho, W1

A pub with a fantastic location at the top of Carnaby Street. Internally it is one bar downstairs and a dining room upstairs. The down stairs bar is mock Elizabethan (sic !) with plenty of dark wood, beamed walls, a fireplace containing a church pew, and limited internal seating with bench window seats and wooden seating around beer barrels in the middle of the bar area. But the biggest problem internally is the actual bar, which is a small affair tucked away in the corner almost as an after thought. This means it can really only accommodate three people before you have to start queuing back into the pub. Outside it has large lead lined windows on the two sides with canopy’s that cover the outside seating. The pub sign used to be a reproduction of Martin Droeshouts' portrait of Shakespeare before it was replaced by the 3-D cartoon nonsense that hangs there now. Fortunately the original life size bust of Shakespeare staring down on the punters below still survives. One of the poet's hands is missing and this fell off during World War II when a bomb dropped nearby. Surprisingly given its location, it doesn’t seem to get swamped with tourists, although it obviously goes out of its way to attract them. And as it does usually provide a few real ales, its usually a decent place to catch a quick pint whilst the wife is off shopping, but not the type of place I would make an evening of. The small bar supports four hand pumps, two of which had Youngs Ordinary and the others were Pride and Spitfire on my last visit.