The Swan, Bloomsbury, WC1

An unscheduled stop due to The Rugby Tavern nearby being shut on Saturday afternoon. A single long narrow room with the bar on a side wall. Wood floor with a tiled splash area by the bar. the tables were a bit crammed together I felt, and it was a bit too warm inside on a mild November day. I found the place to be a bit "plastic" in so far as no original features were discernible, and nothing felt even vaguely old and worn in. There are the usual old photos and pictures on the wall, a plasma TV showing Sky Sports News is oddly set in a gilded picture frame on a central chimney breast. My notes say it looks like a chain, but I couldn't work out which, but it looks like Rex below has answered that one. Cheerful Eastern European staff, and in fairness a well kept pint but I had to ask for a top up. Brains Top Notch (£3.08), Doom Bar, Theakston Old Peculiar....not seen that around here for a bit, Pride and Old Speck Hen. It was ok but fairly underwhelming to be honest.

They had four ales on – London Pride; Doom Bar; Old Speckled Hen; Wooden Hand Brewery Cornish Buccaneer, plus a fifth pump advertised a forthcoming ale – Robinson's Wags to Witches. The latter is presumably a seasonal ale – shame it wasn't on when I visited, as I would certainly have wanted to sample an ale with such a good name. This is a typical Spirit Group pub; plain, functional and fairly characterless. It has Cask Marque accreditation, and my pint of Cornish Buccaneer was top notch. This is OK as far as pubs go, but it's like every other Spirit Group pub you've been in, though the ale selection is a lot a lot better than many. I remember when this was a fairly down-at-heel pub, with separate public and saloon bars, and recall fondly the impecunious and shiftless types that inhabited the public bar. I felt quite at home there. It's very different now, with only one bar of course, and the various makeovers over the years have removed all of its original character. But there are worse places to have a pint or two.

Small pub that is popular with tourists so at times doesn't pay a great deal of attention to customer service. You can usually guarantee that they'll have Theakston's Old Peculiar which is reason enough to go there.