The Masque Haunt (JD Wetherspoon), Old Street, EC1

This is a typical ‘spoons, but handily placed on the direct route from The Artillery Arms to the Old Fountain, thus providing an opportunity for my companions and I to offload our remaining CAMRA vouchers on the last day of their validity. It has a long frontage, and with little depth, that it seems a bit like drinking in a corrider. The beer selection wasn’t great (by ‘spoons’ standards) but we did enjoy a good pint of Itchen Valley Winchester Ale. This pub is not worth going out of your way to visit; but it’s a ‘spoons and does what it says on the tin – provide cheap beer and food.

Long, narrow Wetherspoons pub just a short walk from Old Street tube station. The interior is typical ‘Spoons, with a small seating area at the front, a narrow section with limited seating opposite the bar counter and then a larger, split level area to the rear, including the family seating section at the very back. Large windows along the entire length of the pub allow for plenty light during the daytime. There were a couple of TV screens on showing muted six nations rugby, but otherwise it all felt a bit bland an uninteresting. Beer choice was also a bit of a let down. ‘Spoons standards such as Greene King IPA, Abbot and Ruddles, Wells Bombardier and Fullers London Pride were supplemented only by Adnams Oyster Stout and Red Castle Cream. My Oyster Stout was very nice, but I thought it was a bit of a poor guest selection, especially as there seemed to be four or five guest ale clips all marked as ‘Coming Soon’. I had a bite to eat here as well, and as expected, the food was edible, but not exactly inspiring. Service was prompt despite a bit of a crowd developing and the barman who served me was very polite. Not one of my favourite ‘Spoons pubs, but it can be a useful addition to a crawl of the area.

I hope I caught this particular member of Tim’s expanding empire on a bad day because my experience of woefully short staffed service doesn’t seem to have been shared by the reviewers below. On the positive side, although being the standard ‘spoons fit out, its long rectangular corner shape is made use of by having a large family area at the far end of the pub, thus freeing the front of the pub by the bar area for people free from having kids in tow. The bar supports two banks of six handpumps and there was a good collection of different ales on. These included a good representation from the current festival collection (Shep Neame Cinque Ale, Hook Norton Easy Weasel and Woodforde’s Once Bitten), although ironically the best beer tried was Springhead Liberty, one not in the festival. Unfortunately all this was largely undone by not having enough staff to deal with the throng on this particular evening. On entering nearly every free surface was covered in dead glasses and empty food plates which remained until customers got fed up and moved them onto the bar area. And although the two bar tenders were hard working this was woefully short of what was needed to service the bar area and led to significant waits to be served. And in fact come the proposed fourth round we gave up and went next door.

Randomness Guide to London - Masque Haunt entry

Randomness Guide to London - Masque Haunt entry