The George, Holborn, WC2

Dating from at least the 19th century, this was rebuilt into the base of an office block in 1961. There’s tall modern furniture, bare boarded floor, ginger shiny bar back with square section tubular steel shelves, spotlights, fluted glass shades over the bar and cloth upholstered banquettes to the rear. Customers were generally under 40 as mentioned, but a large number of men in club ties, may possibly come from Freemasons’ Hall over the road, a point of interest is that the hall’s entrance doubled as the HQ entrance in Spooks. There are framed prints of the area from yesteryear and an American clock, probably Waterbury, CT. Ales: Doom or Landlord at £2.70 a half and fine, served by a kindly barman. This place is ok for a swift decent pint, but it’s not in any way a traditional pub, so I won’t return.

Modern pub, and unusually for central London set back from the road by a front patio with a number of fair-sized wooden tables. The 'L'-shaped interior is quite dark at the rear but the front part of the bar benefits from full-height windows. Nothing very adventurous on the drinks front, with Doom Bar and Landlord (£4.90, but in good shape) available from two of three handpumps.

A modern bar housed in the ground floor of an office block is not my usual haunt,but in persuit of balance I noted some positive attributes.There are two handpumps drawing Doom Bar and TT Landlord,served southern style when a tight sparkler brings out the best ,for £1.95 the half.The keg selection is mainstream,no craft here.The flatscreen at the back of the bar has Sky Sports but may be tuned to music videos if there is no live sport.The front windows can fold back in hot weather and the external wooden seats sit in quite a large pavement area.Away from the wooden floored bar area ,there is a carpeted side section with a very long banquette,while the other seating option is high tables. Muzak was being played at a reasonable volume at 5pm on a Friday,but the rank of large speakers along the picture rail may hint at greater volume as the evening draws on. Certainly not as bad as I was expecting,modern decor,possible to catch Sky without paying the earth,popular with the under 40's but not much for a pub traditionalist .