The Coach & Horses, Soho, W1

Pub SignMan left this review about The Coach & Horses

This is quite a smart Soho boozer that retains vestiges of its former three bar layout and has a growing reputation for good ale. You enter to a carpeted front bar with the servery down the left-hand wall as it passes through all three sections of the pub. A banquette runs along the front wall under frosted window panes, with lots of standard chairs in support. You pass through a wide, wood panelled archway through to the very small mid-section, where all the handpulls can be found, but seating is minimal to say the least. Moving on again, you reach a stone floored rear room with three-quarter height wall panels, high bench and stool seating and a dumb waiter on the back wall, in what might have been an old chimney breast. The bar has a nice curved counter and a lovely period bar back with old Ind Coope, Skol and Double Diamond signage still intact. Lots of old paintings, photos and especially cartoons, have been dotted around the walls, which help give the place some extra character. I arrived quite late in the evening to find the place still very busy with a lively post-work crowd, including some healthy pavement spillage, as is standard for Central London boozers.
The ale range is up there with anything you'll find in and around Soho these days, and on this visit it comprised Fullers London Pride, Gales Seafarers, Dark Star Hophead, Anarchy Blonde Star, Lost and Grounded Spring Protaganist and Three Acre Centenial Haze. The Spring Protaganist was in fine shape and the staff were pleasant and efficient, although the busy crowd made it impossible to get a seat, so I had to stand awkwardly in a corner near the rear entrance.
I rarely drink in this part of town but have had a couple of nights out here recently and this was easily the pick of the pubs I tried. This is clearly a popular place doing the right thing on the ale front and whilst it doesn't quite feel like a destination pub, it's definitely somewhere I'd earmark for future return visits.

Date of visit - 2nd May 2024

On 24^th August 2024 - rating: 7
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