The Perseverance, Marylebone, NW1

I came here once with a friend in the winter of 1987 and found it to be a cosy, friendly and traditional place. A shame it has closed, I would have loved to make a return visit.

Closed for a while but reopened early summer. Perseverance both in name and nature, it remains a bare-bones affair, a few comfy chairs at the back plus, oddly, a formica kitchen unit, and some basic tables and chairs around the island bar. Friendly service, but I gave the Doombar a miss in favour of lager on the basis they may not have sold any for about 15 hours. You might want to stick your nose through the door if you've got half an hour to kill at Marylebone but there's no other obvious reason for visiting unless you're local. A major plus point is complete lack of hipster craft pretension or soulless pubco branding.