The Newman Arms, Fitzrovia, W1

A very thorough PSM review needs little adding.This pub is a brewery tap for Truman's with three on offer on my trip Lazarus,Scratcheroo (season cricket theme) and Scorcher (another seasonal but lacking character).Another handpump was unused and several Truman keg beers were also available. The food menu shows lots of sharing platters while I enjoyed a good salt beef bagel for £6.50.Upstairs is really a dining area with a waitress while it is strange that there is a Basement Lounge because this is also the location of the loos,detracting a little from the atmosphere. It is small and maybe is best appreciated when quiet.I have felt for a while that Truman's are a second division brewer ,which would put me off a revisit for anything other than the interesting food.

This is a tiny, historic old pub down a quiet backstreet with an atmospheric alleyway, once known as Murderer’s Alley, running alongside it. The pub has recently undergone a refurbishment and reopened in May 2018 as the first pub from the new incarnation of Truman’s Brewery. The pub is remarkably small, with the bar located in the rear right corner of the compact ground floor room. There’s enough space at the front of the pub for a couple of high tables and stools and a couple more regular tables and chairs a little further back, but that’s about your lot from a seating perspective. The bar has a traditional counter and modern looking, part glazed tile bar back with some incongruous large display cabinets on the end wall full of stuffed birds. There is some nice wall panelling and basic bare floorboards, whilst decor has been kept to a relative minimum. A door leads down to a two-part basement with dim lighting and a reasonable amount of bench and chair seating, broken up by some partitioning screens. This area seemed to have a few George Orwell themed bits on show, which is a nod to the fact that Orwell used to frequent this pub and supposedly based the pub in his novel ‘1984’ on this place. The area was unfortunately being used for a private function on my visit, as was the first floor bar – a much brighter and airier space which I was quickly hurried out of by some snooty cow. The aforementioned alleyway is very characterful and atmospheric, doing little to make you doubt the sincerity of its nickname. The two private functions and packed bar area forced me and many others out onto the pavement area outside where doormen patrolled, keeping an eye on everyone in a fairly unobtrusive manner. Truman’s beers seem to be the sole ale option here, with Attaboy and Waterloo Sunset available, whilst two more turned Truman’s clips occupied the remaining pumps. There were long, slow moving queues at the bar thanks to laconic bar staff and rude customers pushing ahead of others, but I eventually managed to get a pint of the Waterloo Sunset, which was a fairly unmemorable pint. Visiting this place on a Friday evening, not long after the offices emptied out, was perhaps not my best idea, and as such it was impossible to properly enjoy the pub, finding myself instead exiled to the pavement. I thought the pub had a bit of character and imagine the basement and first floor seating areas could be nice spots to settle down, but the indifferent beer and service mean I won’t be rushing back to this one.