The Sir Richard Steele, NW3

Randomness Guide to London - Sir Richard Steele entry

Randomness Guide to London - Sir Richard Steele entry

There were four real ales on during my lunchtime visit – Purity Mad Goose; Timothy Taylor Landlord; Darkstar Original; and Brain’s SA. TTL and Darkstar are £3.10 a pint and the Brain’s and Mad Goose are £2.90 a pint. The food menu is exclusively Thai, with a separate menu offering lunch for a fiver. It was one of the best pub Thai meals that I’ve had. The lady who prepared it came to see if it was too hot – naah, not even close. The pub itself seems to have something of an identity crisis. The pub sign, the lamps outside, and the wine and food menus refer to as the “The Steeles”, whereas on some of the paperwork as well as the frontage at the top, in large letters, it is still referred to as “The Sir Richard Steele”. The “Steeles” makes no sense to me as it is a name, so as far as I’m concerned it’s still The Sir Richard Steele, named after the famous founder of The Spectator. Inside there’s so much to see that I’m bound to have missed something. It’s a large pub, with several inter-connected rooms, including a snug or two, meandering round the central bar. The windows have the distinctive leaded lights with the green band that suggests that it was probably a Charrington’s pub in a former life. There was an attractive fireplace with a fire on the go with an anvil in the grate area; numerous old advertisements mainly for cigarettes and tobacco; brewery mirrors; a wooden handcart suspended over the fireplace; an enormous moose’s head above and to the left of the bar; and masses of other assorted bric-a-brac all over the place. Worthy of special mention is the mural on the ceiling, which I guess is the Michaelangelo of the pub world. It’s bare-boarded with the usual mix of stools at the bar, banquettes and normal tables and chairs. This is the sort of pub I really like. It’s a real pub, and definitely worth seeking out if you like traditional pubs.