Thomas Cubitt, SW1

Originally the Prince of Wales then the Carpenters Arms, this place is named after Thomas Cubitt, ‘the man who built London’ and Osborne House for Queen Victoria on the Isle of Wight. This is a restaurant, where you can stand at the bar and select from two hand pumps, which I couldn’t see from my position and comparative gloom. This is the type of place where tables have individual, freestanding ice buckets by tables, with bottles of wine to hand. As I wasn’t hungry and probably couldn’t afford the place in any event, I left but it does make a substantial change from the tsunami of some of the worst Greene King pubs in London.

Aimed at the trendy set although it did have real ale @ 4.6% ABV which surprised me. Just the one room but not my sort of place.

A pub serving as a bistro and wine bar, which still retains handpumps on the counter. The food was expensive, but it was original (if a little fussy) and freshly cooked. Owned by Percy and Founders, it makes a very nice change from the local infestation of Taylor Walker. The male clientele did a lot of braying, while their females were quite shrill, and the word 'like' appeared rather too often, but the atmosphere was benign enough The staff were friendly and fairly efficient, though the food was expensive even before the 'optional' and in my opinion undeserved 12.5% service charge added to the bill. Two ales on, both from Head in the Hat Brewery: I had Toffee which wasn't as hoppy as it should have been and not that fresh and was rather ordinary as real ales go. I wouldn't include in a crawl, but I might come back next time I fancy goat for dinner.

Interior as described below. 2 real ales and food served. A bit gastro but did the job.

The Thomas Cubitt is a short walk to or from Victoria bus station so it was handy for me to have a last drink here. Once inside there is a square shaped room to the front which has normal tables and chairs for seating,the left side of the room had tables laid out for diners,but drinkers are welcome in here and it was very busy with both drinkers and diners on my early Tuesday evening visit. There is a separate room to the rear which i did'nt look in. There were two real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Head in the Hat Copper which went down well,the other beer was head in the Hat Toffee. I was happy enough ending my crawl in this pub. Pub visited 26/5/2015

I initially walked past the Thomas Cubbit as I took it for a tea shop and it was only when I wandered back a couple of minutes later that I noticed the faintly printed name on the frontage. I wandered in at 11:50 on Thursday morning and after I had asked for half a Deuchars the barman informed me that they were not open for another ten minutes. I decided to sample the delights of the Traveller’s Tavern up the road before returning to a ‘pub’ half full of suited gentlemen and woman with designer labels coming out of every orifice. There were more of the same turning up in Hackney Carriages and two members of staff were greeting and seating. I decided that life is too short and I moved onto the next venue. Alongside the Deuchars was Adnams Southwold (a very popular ale in these parts) and there was a limited draught selection. There is no TV and there was no back music – to be honest this felt more like a restaurant. There is some seating on the path out front and I noted that inside the seating is uncomfortably close. This place is certainly not up my street and I do not plan a revisit.