King Charles I, Kings Cross, N1

Caught a bus to the Charles I pub as we heard they served Brodies beers, and were pleased to find 3 of their beers new to us. Mild, Californian and West End best. Enjoyed the ales. £4.80 for the 3 halves. It was very busy here with a nice atmosphere. Bar billiard table too, something you don't often see these days.

Decent selection of ales on – St Austell Tribute; Everard’s Beacon; Brodie’s Mild and a cask on the bar containing Brodie’s Stout. There was also a fourth handpump with the clip turned round, probably usually dispensing another of the Brodie’s range. There also looked to be a large range of bottled beers on offer, advertised on a chalkboard. I had the Tribute (£3 a pint), which was in excellent form. The only food (at lunchtime anyway) were pickled eggs, scotch eggs and pork pies. Nothing wrong with that – and they are happy for you to pop over the road to the sandwich bar to bring something back to eat. The service was friendly and helpful. This is a small one-room pub. The walls are covered with what looks like some pretty ancient wood panelling; there’s plenty of solid wood furniture; and some large African and Asian (Thai I think) masks on the wall. There’s even a bar billiards next to the door. The pub is small enough that I imagine it would get crowded pretty quickly, but it wasn’t too busy on a Friday lunchtime. This is the sort of pub that I would be very happy to sit in for a couple of hours with a few pints over a long lunch. I’ll be back.