The Old Grey, Fitzrovia, W1

Visited 20/10/25. Visited previously as Simmons on 19/01/23. No cask. Keg offering of K1664, Somerset apple cider, K1664 Blanc, Sapporo, Red Fin cider, Delicious Things fruited sour from Siren, with Siren also contributing Lumina, the Breakfast Stout and the Soundwave IPA, Brooklyn lager, Pilsner and the Stonewall Inn IPA, Angelo Poretti and their own branded Old Grey lager. Small corner location, bare boarded with the bar counter in the rear left-hand corner with a DJ booth in the right-hand corner seemingly surviving from the Simmons days but not clear if still in use! There are some leather banquettes along the front left-hand side and around the front right-hand side serving either regular or tall tables with some tall tables and tall backed stools down the centre. Tall stool seating at the bar counter and around a drinking ledge to the right of the bar counter means there is reasonable seating options in a small venue. There is a downstairs bar that would add capacity at busy times but closed on my early week visit. A bright pink neon sign in the window proclaims, "I need a bloody drink", I was thinking I need a bloody good pint of cask after other venues visited on this mini crawl to tick off a few re-opened venues around here.

As the Yorkshire Grey, this pub dates from the early/mid-19th century, rebuilt probably in the 1930s or by at least the ‘50s. It had been a style bar called Potion then from 2014 a branch of the increasingly declining Simmons chain of Barbie bars, to reopen at the end of September 2025 as the Old Grey. The exterior features a purple neon sign with pithy epithet – see photo – then an interior with battered black floor, shiny green tiles or patterned wallpaper to the walls, then raised areas with tan coloured banquette seating to the periphery with tall, modern tubular steel furniture to the small central area; there’s also a jukebox and ugly games machine. Thereafter, the bar back is modern and customers amounted to just one – me – at 9.00pm on a Tuesday evening, though as I was to find out, there was another customer – or barmaid – in the basement bar called Dirty Deeds; Vacant Space would be a more appropriate name. There’s no cask unsurprisingly, then a range of Eurofizz and pseudo craft, a half of Siren Breakfast Stout for £3.30, poured by a friendly barmaid. There’s little around here worth visiting, this pub hardly upping the area’s game. Rated: 3.5.

Facebook page of The Old Grey - www.facebook.com

Official site of The Old Grey - theoldgrey.co.uk

Facebook page of The Old Grey - www.facebook.com

Official site of The Old Grey - theoldgrey.co.uk