26 Furnival Street, Chancery Lane, EC4

The idea of changing a pub from "normal" style to an Ale House is nothing new, it's been going on for some 40 years now. This is a classic example of the type. I remember it being a comfortable carpeted Ind Coope house, but one which we used to generally overlook for the more basic White Horse, another Ind Coope house at the other end of Norwich Street (long demolished and replaced with a hideous office block). It is now part of a small pub chain called Red Car pubs. The tiny interior is wooden floored with fairly minimal furnishings and a bank of 8 handpumps stand proudly in the centre of the bar. Two are taken up by the house beer Red Car Bitter (brewed by Nethergate) and London Pride. The other six were from breweries of which only two I had come across before. They were Milestone Wicked Witch, Long Man Sussex Pride, Sonnet Brown, Raw JR Best, Empire Robohop and one called Roscoe IPA that I can't trace. I went for the Sonnet Brown (£3.85) which was in excellent nick. There is an upstairs room that I didn't investigate. I would expect the House beer to be slightly cheaper but didn't ask. I was the only punter on my pre-midday visit, but would imagine it gets busy later on. Hot meals are served from 12:00 to 15:00 but snacks are available at other times. I liked this little place and was well impressed by the ale selection. If I still worked around the corner as I did thirty years ago I would be more than happy to regularily frequent it.

This is a great little pub.Manager and his staff are friendly. Good selection of beers but the condition seems to be affected sometimes as they shut at the weekend which cannot help the beers.Same company own the New Wheatsheaf at the Borough.

This is a good solid boozer,non pretentious, what you see is what you get,what you get is a choice of eight or so ales mostly interesting selections,the only predictable beer in sight was London Pride,(well some people like it),My selections were Whitehorse Hi Ho Silver followed by Classy Blonde by Clare Brewing Company,both very acceptable.Witty Manager and chatty barmaids made for a pleasurable visit,not my first but certainly not my last.

I think this is an excellent little boozer. The eight hand pumps are always fully populated with an interesting selection of regularly changing ales (two or three of them usually coming from Nethergate). They also regularly have Anchor New York Steam beer on tap. Service is very helpful, and on asking what a beer I haven’t seen before is like, I invariably seem to end up with tasters of several beers they think I might like. Actually purchasing a pint costs £3.50 a time, and I’ve always found them to be in top condition. Buntingford’s October was an interesting one yesterday. As others have said, the main bar is smallish and sparse, mainly set up for vertical drinking but with some stools and flat surfaces around the edges. The upstairs room is smaller and has little character, principally functioning as a place you would go if you wanted to sit at a table to eat, and has a small bar with limited drinks range. Sandwiches and small meals start at £4.50, and mains from £6.70, generously portioned: last time I ate here I had trouble finishing a burger with cheese and bacon, chips and salad for £7.25. I’ve not yet had a long session here, but in the right company would be keen to do so.

A simple, single room pub a short walk away from Fleet Street, this place has a fairly standard, traditional interior, which is oddly contrasted by some shocking 70's retro wallpaper. The area in front of the bar is set up for vertical drinking, with just a few stools along partitioned drinking shelves on the front wall. To the right of the bar there is a small area which has some standard seating as well as a nice fireplace. There is another bar upstairs, but I didn't venture up there. The pub was gearing up for Halloween, so there were plenty of plastic skulls and the like dotted around the place. Two TV's showed muted rolling news coverage whilst music played at what seemed like a low volume, but the noise made by the packed room of punters, all but drowned it out. The visitor is greeted by eight hand pumps, plus a blackboard on the right hand side of the bar which lists the options. Nethergate Old Chap (£3.30), Derventio Cleopatra, Butcombe Bitter, Red Car Bitter, Young's Ordinary, Mordue All Hallows Ale, Dark Star Oktoberfest and Phipps NBC IPA were all on offer. I tried a pint of the Nethergate and was pleased to find it was a very well kept and tasty beer. I had initially hoped to have a pint of Mordue Geordie Pride, but this had just gone off and was replaced straight away with the Derventio. The bar staff suggested alternatives and offered me a taster, all unprompted, which I thought was very thoughtful customer service. A nice place to stop off for a pint and with such a wide choice of ale on offer, I could see myself happily spending an evening in here.