Old Red Cow, Smithfield, EC1

Close to Barbican tube station and Smithfield Market, the Old Red Cow is a very small, two storey bar, positioning itself in the ‘craft beer’ market. The downstairs bar is tiny, with bare floorboards, neutral coloured walls and high tables making it fairly unmemorable as well. The servery is on the back wall and, as you might expect in a specialist beer bar, it is decorated with various pump clips. A few enamel beer signs provide a bit of visual distraction, as does a picture of a red cow and I also spotted a juke box on one wall. Stairs lead up to a lounge bar which is comparatively spacious and has a much better range of seating options. Again, the room is bare boarded with the servery on the back wall and windows give a view out to the streets below on both sides of the pub. A decent soundtrack played in the background throughout my stay and blackboards listed a few food options, with main meals around the £15 mark. Four hand pumps were dispensing Oldershaw Heavenly Blonde, Flipside Sterling Pale, Alchemy Five Sisters and Hand Drawn Monkey Malpa. I enjoyed a decent pint of the Heavenly Blonde and whilst I didn’t note down the price, I don’t recall it being particularly expensive. A box of London Glider Cider sat on the bar counter, but the star attraction for beer buffs is likely to be the twelve keg taps which, thanks to a helpful blackboard next to the bar, you can study in great detail before choosing. As mentioned below, these beers are not cheap, ranging from £3.90 for a pint of the house lager to some stronger brews which cost over £4 for a half pint. I timed my visit here fairly well, as the post-work crowds had cleared by the time I arrived, leaving enough space to explore and grab a seat, but I imagine it can very quickly become oppressively crowded. The interesting beer range makes it worth at least a quick look, but the pricing of the keg beers will put off all but the most devoted (or rich) beer enthusiasts.

This small pub, close to Smithfield market was closed for a short time and renovated in early 2011 and turned into a “local beer house” concept. According to the pubs website the local beer house idea was developed as a means to promote and serve “great beer” in a similar way to the beer houses developed in England in the early 19th century as an alternative to the gin houses of the time. It has remained a two room pub with a comfortable upstairs room complementing the small downstairs bar area. This still remains a small space but has been maximised by removing the previous tables and replacing with high tables and high, cushioned stools. But the important bit is that the beer options have greatly changed for the positive. There are now four hand pumps, serving ales mainly from regional brewers (One of the Ascot Ales was on when I popped in, and was well kept) and definitely one or two from London brewers like Sambrookes and Redemption. And these are complemented by twelve numbered taps along the back of the bar dispensing keg and craft ales. The available beers are displayed on a large numbered menu to the left of the bar, and as well as the usual Guinness, lagers and Thatcher's cider, they included BrewDog punk IPA , Camden Pale Ale, and Maisel's Weissbier, on my visit, Then also there are several bottled beers available tucked into small compartments on the bar back. These included the usual Belgium Chimay and Duval offerings but also Brewdog beers and quite a few American IPA’s from what I could see. I’ve never had the opportunity to eat here, as my visits have been for the one before moving off, but the bar food looks to be decent pub grub fare at reasonable prices. So now a good place to look out for a beer when in the Barbican area, but still suffers from the thing they couldn’t fix in the refurb which was its overall size. But very pleasant if you can visit when it’s not overly busy and it does still have the advantage of being open on both Saturdays and Sundays.

This used to be a Scottish and Newcastle pub; more recently it has been a Shepherd Neame house; and I’m not sure who owns it now, but the ales on were Spitfire and Exmoor Fox. The Fox was excellent, but at £3.30 a pint it’s not cheap. When I looked through the window I saw two handpumps unclipped so thought that maybe this pub didn’t have any real ale on, but at the passage at the back I had noticed empty casks, as well as kegs, so decided to go in and find out. Luckily, the two available ales had been chalked on the bases of the Angram pump bases, which is an unusual and perhaps understated way of advertising the ales, as I know people who wouldn’t have gone in without the promise of some real ale. The downstairs is very small, with one of the smallest bar counters I have seen – two punters standing at the bar would have made it difficult for anyone else to get served. It’s been completely stripped at some point, looking much like a French bistro now. The walls are painted green, the ceiling black; it’s bare-boarded with a rug; there’s a sofa with a low coffee table; banquettes, a bench; hard stools. The decor is appropriate, consisting mainly of photos of Smithfield market over the road, a print of a painting of a red cow, and a large mirror on the left as you go in. There was another room upstairs, with the sounds of merry punters having a jolly time emanating from it, but I didn’t visit it. There was some laid back jazz being played when I went in, but later some faster and louder music convinced me it was time to leave. It’s clearly nothing like the pub it used to be, and a little too “chintzy” for my taste. I’ve nothing really against it, but I didn’t find it a very comfortable pub for some reason, and probably won’t visit again.