Ye Olde Swiss Cottage, Swiss Cottage, NW3

Randomness Guide to London - Ye Olde Swiss Cottage entry

Randomness Guide to London - Ye Olde Swiss Cottage entry

This is now a Sam Smith’s pub, serving the handpump version of Old Brewery Bitter, although, as cheap as it was, it wasn’t in particularly good nick. There is a small bar on the ground floor, called the Tap Room, seemingly leading to a members only pool room; a first floor bar to which I didn’t venture; and a large meandering ground floor bar where I spent my visit. This bar reminded me somewhat of a hotel lounge – thick carpet, armchairs, pine wood panelled walls and bar counter, and some walls painted a sort of magenta colour. It was comfortable enough in there, but it didn’t have much of a “pub” atmosphere, and I don’t think that I would recommend this pub to any ale drinker unless for some reason they were a fan of cheap Sam Smith’s beers.

This is a dark sprawling below standard Sam Smiths pub that thankfully does still retain Old Brewery Bitter on hand pump. I’ve been in here a few times and I’ve always found the staff to be disinterested and the clientele to be a tad offensive. There is a dartboard in the public bar to the left of the main bar as the pub is approached, but this seems to be the hangout of some unsavory characters that pop in and out of the attached member’s pool club. The pub building is a nice feature in the area and it has a large paved beer garden, but the location in the middle of one of the busiest roundabouts in the country surrounded by four lanes of traffic is hardly the most desirable location for alfresco drinking. I end up in here every now and again and I am always glad when we move on.