The Kings Arms, Fitzrovia, W1

Quite a quirky interior serving 4 real ales. Live fitba on during my visit.

I found the Kings Arms a bit of a mixed bag. The awkward layout means that some areas are reasonably spacious whilst others are tight squeeze with quite a bottleneck at the bar. At one end of the pub is a partitioned off lounge with comfy sofas whilst the remainder of the pub is a traditional style but rather blandly refurbished. There are a few nice touches such as the old clocks, book shelves and two old fashioned tills that probably started life in the shillings and pence days. They were selling Cumberland Ale when we were there which makes a change from the usual mainstream beers. We had no problems with service and the customer base was pretty civilised. Not worth going too far out of the way for but you could do a lot worse if you are in the area.

Randomness Guide to London - Kings Arms entry

Randomness Guide to London - Kings Arms entry

This is a fairly unremarkable pub, but it was pleasant enough sitting on one of the armchairs at the rear whilst flicking through a ‘London Drinker’ that I had picked up earlier in the day. The bar area at the front is pretty basic, but there is a selection of draught beers along with Staropramen and three ales. The governor wasn’t the friendliest and he reminded me of Arkwrite as he mashed the keys on the old style till to deposit my money, but the barman was nice enough and my Guinness was well poured. There is a plasma screen which was off during a football match so I gather there is no Sky Sports. However, there is a jukebox which was playing a decent few songs at a reasonable volume. The toilet downstairs is a little grim and there was no toilet paper or soap which was a little annoying as I could have done with not having to wait until the next pub before the big purge. This place is ok, but I think that there are better pubs in this area so I don’t see myself returning.