The Charlotte, Southwark, SE1

A kind of upmarket sports bar and well attended on a Saturday lunchtime. It's keg only nowadays and mostly premium lagers, there were a couple of craft efforts on so went for a Signal Turbo Joost. Not my kind of place so unlikely to return anytime soon.

A new(ish) upmarket bar under the arches. An impressive corridor entrance with green, brown and floral tiling and then through a pair of jumbo Union Jack curtains (taking the mick of the place pub over the road which carried the name but had none?) which makes you feel like you’re on an episode of Stars in Their Eyes. Quite a good job done in the main bar with wood block flooring, bottle green button banquettes and red walls. To the right is a glazed wall that leads to a narrow enclosed patio garden and does an excellent job making the interior light and welcoming. The good work is undone at the bar though; it looked promising with two Wimbledon ales on but my Common was flat and watery (NBSS 1.5), I suspect the term ‘hard spiling’ is unknown here. It also weighed in at £2.50, so probably the most expensive cask in the nearby radius. As a bar I actually quite liked it but the drinking meant I won't be heading back in a hurry. 5.5

What at first sight looks like a small narrow bar under a railway arch, opens up at the back via an archway flanked by curtain with the Union Flag design into a much larger area. The narrow entranceway has a copper plated ceiling(!), a handfull of tall tables (bolted to the walls) and tall stools, with the larger rear area having fairly normal tables and chairs and some national flags as decor. There's also an outside seating area on the right. There were three ales on during my visit, all from the Wimbledon Brewery - Common, Windmill, and Copper Leaf (£2.50 a half). Food is mainly American in style, featuring such things as wings, racks of ribs (full rack is £17, half rack £10), plus loads of other stuff I didn't recognise such as pimentos padron and chorizo cassoulet. No sign of fish and chips. This is clearly a modern bar for the well-heeled. It's not really my kind of place, even if my half of Copper Leaf was in fine shape - which it should be at that price.

Hidden away under the railway arches leading to Blackfriars, this main part of this modern bar / restaurant benefits from a high ceiling and tall windows along one side so is nothing like as gloomy inside as you might (although the same can't be said for the seating in the entrance corridor). Mix of furniture, supplemented by some patio tables out in the side alley. Pricy menu, ranging from the £22 fillet steak to pizzas at £7.50. Nothing cheap about the three Wimbledon cask beers either, with my XXK winter ale coming in at £5.10 and both the Common pale and Copper Leaf being priced at £4.90. Still, it was a decent pint, and the place had quite a relaxed feel on my late afternoon visit.