The Globe, Marylebone, NW1

There was just the one real ale on during my visit – Abbot Ale at £3.20 a pint. This is a fairly down at heel pub just a stone’s throw from Marylebone Station. There were numerous national flags hanging from the ceiling for some reason, perhaps left over from a previous World Cup, except for one corner where the sticky tape had given up on the unequal challenge and left the unfortunate Ivory Coast, Dutch and USA flags hanging forlornly behind the grubby looking games machines congregating in that corner. The banquette seating that had seen better days, the dirty bare-boarded floor, and pop music being played from a TV music station completes the picture. It was unsurprisingly fairly empty mid afternoon on a Friday, with just me in there, plus three or four regulars at a table at one end of the room. I don’t think that it’s worth a return visit.