The Beer House, Charing Cross, WC2

Situated next to Platform 1 on the concourse of Charing Cross station, the Boadicea (and its previous incarnation as the Kent Connection) has probably been one of the most maligned “pubs” on Planet Beer so its apparent conversion to a specialist (and newly renamed) beer house probably had many a CAMRA card bearer coughing into his froth. Despite the opening fanfare, everyone’s favourite station bar isn’t the ale bearing outlet that every beer ticker (or even Network Rail if their blurb is to be believed) were probably hoping for but to its credit, it does pack a bit more of a punch than its predecessor. Instead of ales we now have a new outlet for the ever growing craft beer revolution that appears to polarize the discerning drinkers. True ale buffs will lament the lack of Real Ales (the Boadicea did at least have 2 admitedly mediocre mainstream choices - Youngs and Pride) wheras the obsure(ish) top end keg continental and craft beers (about 15 on draught) and bottled beer tickers will gain some degree of satisfaction. Prices range from £4 (for a small bottle) to however much a fool and his wallet need to be parted. The small L-shaped interior layout is as it has always been and is still rather faceless although the façade now has shelves of the aforementioned bottled beers and does look a little more enticing. The TV has been repositioned in the narrow corridor entrance which isn’t the most practical spot. One major plus point is that the small tucked away TV screen showing the train departures has been retained which is handy on such occasions when there is disruption to services and you need to keep an eye on the indicator boards (particularly useful when 2 snowflakes fall at the same time or another tranch of copper wiring heads to the scrap merchants). One major downside is that there are no bogs so you can add in the occasional 30p to the prices if you have any intention of making a session of the place. Is it an improvement? Certainly yes, but for my money, still far from anything to warrn to beyond a single missed train.