The Porters Lodge, Monument, EC4

Vary basic basement bar housed in a strange consrete structure which looks something like an ammunition store combined with a bridge abutment... Home to the City of London Darts Association (CoLDA), with eight darts boards and very little else in the way of decor. Pool. One of of the two handpumps was operational, offering a serviceable pint of Greene King IPA (£3.40). Overall, the atmosphere is more reminiscent of a members-only darts club than a pub, but it is certainly somewhere very different to the general run of City drinking holes.

This place is a tatty dive that harbours one of the worst gent's toilets I have ever had the misfortune to walk into. Although there are three unused hand pumps there is one hooked up to some Pride, but it wasn't the best. There is a standard selection of lager, but I ended up on the Guinness which I find is hard to mess up. I would normally write off a pub in this state and give it a big fat zero, but the Porters Lodge isn't about sitting at the bar and making notes on the quality of the ale, it is about the darts, pool and fantastic atmosphere that the manager and his missus generate with the aid of some loyal locals. It is a shame that a little bit more care isn't put in as this would become a great pub. There are five dartboards which are needed to accommodate the nine dart teams that play from the pub every week. There are also a couple of pool tables that are available for general play or can be hired for parties when one of the six pool teams isn't playing a league match. There is an old beat up TV and a couple of ill fitting projector screens that look like they were put up at the spur of the moment, but amazingly no Sky Sports which I find strange for a pub that is so sport orientated. One of the projector screens, that covers a dartboard, was showing a feed advertising the pub with pictures off their Facebook page which I found a little odd. The manager informed me that the teams are mostly made up of the local office staff that like to unwind after work and don't enjoy going to the pub and talking shop. I have to admit that if I worked in the area I would join a team here and this would probably become my local, even with all its faults. The question is often asked about whether there is a pub in town with pool and darts that would cater for groups on a night out. Well here you have it, and a point that I haven't mentioned is that they have a licence from 9am until 3am everyday of the week, but obviously it has to be worth their while to stay open. So to sum up, this is not a place for the discerning drinker but if you fancy playing some pub sports until the early hours in a friendly atmosphere you could do much worse than giving this place a try.