Purgatory, Pimlico, SW1

2 roomed pub serving 3 real ales and food.

The Greyhound is a very basic pub that looks as though it hasn’t been lived in for very long. It is split into two rooms with a seating area to the left that consists of a low table edged by three armchairs, a high table with chairs in the centre of the room and another high table with chairs under a dartboard. The right hand room houses some more high tables and the bar that is stocked with standard draught products and supports four hand pumps. One of these pumps was unused leaving Landlord, Doom Bar and Deuchars as the ale options. I didn’t see any food advertised, but there were some cellophane covered rolls on a plate behind the bar. I didn’t spot any TV screens and the background music was courtesy of a radio station. A few quotes from the likes of Oscar Wilde have been printed onto the white walls, but that is the extent of the décor. Hot drinks were available and the toilets are located down some stairs at the rear of the building. This place is very basic, but it is clean and the barmaid was very friendly. There were only three other customers, but they were regulars and it would have only taken another three or four people to make the place look busy as it isn’t the biggest venue. There are better pubs nearby, but I’d have no problem popping back in for a swift pint if I was walking past.

This pub has re-opened recently having been closed for over a decade. It really is one that has come back from the dead. It’s been thoroughly modernised, with little or nothing original inside, even though the building itself is Grade II listed. The first room as you enter has the bar counter in it, along with two or three tall tables and tall stools plus the usual stools at the bar. There is a second room reached through a doorway on the left, which contains a couple more sets of tall tables/stools, a couple of leather armchairs and a sofa. The dartboard in here looks as if it’s already had a bit of use judging by the small holes in the wall surrounding it caused by off-target arrows, although it is not made easy to access by the tall table against the wall beneath it. Some poinsettias on the low table and mantelpiece in this room give it a bit of a drawing room look. There were three ales on – the now ubiquitous Doom Bar, plus another couple that I didn’t recognise that the barman informed me were by Marco Pierre White. I didn’t know that he had gone in for brewing beer, but I suppose that if Morrissey and May can then anyone can. One was a 4.5% winter ale called Amber Ale, and the other a reasonable 3.8% session ale called the Governor (at £3.20 a pint). Notwithstanding the non-traditional furnishings, this somehow still feels like a real pub, having already attracted a few regulars. Surprisingly I quite liked it in here, but I have to say that just one or two normal tables and chairs would be a big plus.

CLOSED & BOARDED (24/09/07)