The Horseshoe, Clerkenwell, EC1

There were a couple of real ales on when I dropped in here recently - Marston's 61 Deep and Young's Bitter (£2.25 a half). I didn't see any sign of food on Wednesday afternoon. This is a pub I've walked past loads of times, and at last popped in to have a look around and have a swift half. It's completely opened up now of course, and seems larger than it looks from the outside. As I was in during a sunny afternoon, luckily I wasn't assaulted by the bright lighting that the previous reviewer encountered. The windows are small rectangular panes, all with obscured glazing, which is a throwback to the days when this was often the norm in pubs to shield the goodly passers by from the seedy goings on inside. Not really necessary now - well, I suppose it is in some pubs. As Tris says, there's a reasonably large garden at the back that's not visible from the street - so, sort of qualifies as a secret garden. It looks to have been tidied up a bit since his visit as I thought it was nice out there, and a bit of a suntrap on a sunny day. There was a TV on, but muted so we could "enjoy" the pop music being played. This struck me as an ordinary pub with no airs or graces - I quite liked it.

From the outside, this pub looks like some cute little historic pub in an idyllic Dickensian enclave of Clerkenwell. However, once through the door you find yourself in a rather large and long pub with very bright lighting. I usually complain about the gloom in some pubs, but this one requires the wearing of sunglasses. There are somewhat incongruous ceiling fans with integrated lights and loud sport on multiple TVs. The bar's quite long with vertical t 'n' g panelling and surprisingly for a pub of this type, the floor is bare boarded and there's a dartboard opposite the entrance with players in full throw. The interior even has an Artex ceiling, which dates its interior somewhat. Muted music competed with the football and drinkers were a mix of locals and studenty types. There's very little décor and the lavatories are really rather grotty; the solitary basin had a large chunk of porcelain missing from the right side and a communal hand towel was all there was for the drying of hands. On the plus side there's a more appealing side snug with a modern bare brick wall and log burning stove. Out back, there's an attractive secluded and surprisingly large garden which could do with a little cash. The barman was very friendly serving just Purity's Ubu at an acceptable £4.00 a pint which was in passable condition. This pub really needs some cash spent on it. That and a wider choice of beers and this could be a minor destination so long as it's not ruined.

Old-school boozer with an opened-out interior of at least three former rooms with the bar in one branch of a flat 'T' layout. Limited furniture and decor, with the two dartboards being the main features of note. Three of four handpumps in use, with the regular Sharp's Coaster and Brain's Rev James supplemented by something with a hand-written label saying "? Dingy Spirit" (a 4.5% pale ale from Suffolk, £4.00) on offer.

The Horseshoe is a nice looking pub from the outside,that is set in the back streets of Clerkenwell. Once inside,the pub was fairly narrow and dimly lite,we had a drink in the front area which had a wood floor,there were two real ales on the bar,we had a drink of Sharps Cornish Coaster which was a decent drink and one i had not seen before,the other beer was GK IPA. This was a pleasant enough pub to have a drink in. Pub visited 17/8/2006