Savoy Tap, Strand, WC2

Just off the Strand (have a banana!), this was the New Savoy Tavern upon building in 1926, later the Savoy Tup now Savoy Tap, this is a Shep’s pub, so how it can be a ‘tap’ is puzzling. It has what appears to be a traditional interior, despite the age, with dark lacquered wood panelling, otherwise tedious smoky blue and white paint with ordinary drinking ledges, high furniture or fawn banquettes with Victorian-style lighting and brass hanging ‘porthole’-style lamps over the bar; there’s a shiny tiled bar back, with square section tubular steel shelving. Décor is in the form of framed prints of luminaries who may have had some connection with the vaguely local area and reasonable music played over the stereo. Customers included women who could outsquawk those in the George up the road. Being a Shep’s pub, it came as no great surprise that there were no ales, with four unused pumps, unused pumps in their pubs being not uncommon pre-pandemic. I plumped for a half of yet more Neck Oil at a painful £3.30 a half, which tasted mainly of line cleaner; I couldn’t finish it. This is by no means a great pub, so a return visit won’t be in the offing.

Passed this many a time so decided to give it a try.Small but busy bar with an upstairs area.Sheperd Neame Whitstable Bay and Spitfire on cask ruined the ambiance.

Official site of Savoy Tap - www.savoytap.co.uk

Official site of Savoy Tap - www.savoytap.co.uk

This is a small pub with nothing much to it apart from some halfway decent real ale.

Small bar tucked away on a side street. Quite a plain interior serving 4 real ales.

A pleasant oasis of sanity in the seething cesspit of strife that is The Strand. Easy to miss, so not overrun with tourists, it offers decent beer and friendly conversation. It's a proper pub whose only nod to modernity is the flat screens in the corners, which were thankfully mute on this latest visit. There is the bar and a function room, basic seating, pleasant atmosphere and, in case you feel the need, a good selection of wines. There were 3 ales on – I had a pint of Nelson IPA which was definitely on the turn, still drinkable, but it wouldn't have been the next day. Worth a visit, but check first as they sometimes rent the whole place out for private functions.