The Barley Mow, Marylebone, W1

Official site of The Barley Mow - www.barleymowlondon.co.uk

Closed on Sundays, this is supposedly the oldest pub in Marylebone, dating from 1791, grade II-listed and on CAMRA’s list of pubs with interiors of National Importance. Photos on CAMRA’s site, the most interesting heritage items here are the little private ‘confessional’ booths, linked to the bar and wall with metal brackets, which apparently were used for pawnbrokers’ transactions. With a stool, they can only accommodate only around five people of average size. The walls are clad in some form of matchboard and are absolutely festooned with the largest number of clip fronts I’ve ever seen; it must run to hundreds. Customers seemed to be a very mixed and friendly bunch, one loud local American causing me to seek refuge in one of the said boxes. Two unused clips, the friendly barmaid thereafter serving up Windsor & Eton’s Eton Boatman, Cwtch, Pride and Proper Job at a very stiff £5.20 and in excellent shape. This is a great little pub, worth pairing with the Jackalope.

Official site of The Barley Mow - www.barleymowlondon.co.uk

Attractive, old-fashioned (in a good way) London pub with a 'U'-shaped layout featuring some traditional 3/4-height wooden screened booths to the left of the central counter. With limited space for more furniture at the front and the right-hand side, and only a few tables in the rear 'VIP Room', many of the punters were out on the pavement as is usual in these parts. Traditionally decorated with a fine display of pump clips too. Four of the six handpumps were in use on this visit, with real ales ranging from Doom Bar, XT 4 Session Amber and Windsor & Eton Corker! and Over the Moon mild from Dark Star (£4.90).

Quirky interior with some wooden booths/snugs. 6 real ales.

Bar in centre as you come in. Booths to the left and open at the right and rear. Six real ales - nothing above 4.5% ABV.

Nice little pub a short stroll from the main drag. If you are visiting for a trip to Wembley and want to avoid the crush of the Globe and the Spoons it is worth popping in here and the nearby Beehive. You can actually get served and get a decent pint!

Tucked away down one of the many side streets in Marylebone, this is a lovely heritage pub with a very unusual interior for Central London. You enter into a fairly straightforward main bar area comprising an L-shaped space with a dark wood servery on the rear wall. Banquette and low stool seating is available along the front and right hand sides and the walls have tongue and groove panelling decorated with pump clips, a nice Fullers mirror, a fine portrait of the pub and a TV screen which was switched off in favour of a drab selection of pop music. Over to the left, some attractive mid-height panelled screens along the end of the servery have been used to create two private snugs, each with their own door, accessed by a passageway down the left side of the pub. The snugs are pretty basic with simple seating, hooks for coats and bags and access to the servery but not much else. It’s also perhaps a bit misleading to describe them as ‘private’ – most people will be able to poke their head over the top of the panels to have a look inside. To the rear left there is a final small seating area, again with bar access, in a smartly carpeted space with comfy, if somewhat limited, seating. This seemed like a very pleasant place to enjoy a few drinks, especially as the front part of the pub was packed out for someone’s work leaving do. There is no garden but a decent sized area had been fenced off to the front of the pub, creating the usual London al-fresco drinking scene. There were six ales on the go here on my mid-week visit – Black Sheep Bitter, Fullers London Pride, Gales Seafarers, Sharps Doom Bar, XT2 and West Berks Mister Chubbs. I also noticed a few Camden beers plus London Pride on keg dispense, although I wasn’t able to figure out if the latter was available for the same price as the cask. The bar staff were friendly and dealt well with the large crowd at the bar, serving up a rather nice pint of the Mister Chubbs in the process. This is a lovely old pub with a very interesting layout thanks to the little snugs down one side of the building. It was a bit of a spur of the moment addition to my crawl, but I’m certainly glad I popped in. It’s a great place to have a nose around with some decent beer and friendly, welcoming staff and I’ll hope to give it another go at a more peaceful time in the near future.