The Fitzroy Tavern, Fitzrovia, W1

A splendidly turned out Sam Smiths pub and although not authentic it's a fine recreation of a Victorian pub.The beer keg range is as you would expect from this company, there are two handpulls both clipped up for OBB and claiming to be drawn from the wood.I don't mind calling into a Smiths pub now and again, but they're not normally what I'd want as a local.

This pub did indeed win the 2017 Refurbishment category of the annual CAMRA Pub Design Awards. The reason is of course the typically magnificent Sam Smith's reconstruction of a Victorian multi-partitioned pub. The screening separating the drinking areas is modern (but excellent) work; I'm not quite so certain about the tiling in the entrance on the right and in the room at the back on the right. It was too dark to have a good look at the tiling in the back room, but the tiling in the entranceway was in good condition, which I wouldn't expect in tiling that is 120+ years old. Whatever, it all looks very good. The toilets are downstairs. This is one of the few Sam Smith's pubs that has the handpump version of Old Brewery Bitter on - at £4.70 a pint. It's a long way from being my favourite ale, but it was in very good condition. I didn't see any sign of food, but I was in at early doors of a weekday lunchtime. This pub is certainly worth a visit to see what a traditional Victorian multi-space pub would have looked like.

A rather wonderful recreation of a Victorian boozer. Multi-roomed and you can't move between most of them. Instead you need to go outside and use another entrance or, as I later discovered, go down to the traps which traverse both ends of the building like an underpass. The layout upstairs; to the centre and right is the etched glass and wood bit, and to the left is a darker and quieter area which houses the locals who are less fussed by the ornateness elsewhere. Cask OBB available here and so, the following week, would be the Stingo. Went for a Strawberry beer in attempt to complete the whole Sam’s set. I liked it here but it is a place where you need to time your visit well as there aren’t really that many seats and service at the single bar, encompassing many areas with no visible sight line, can be variable.