The Golden Lion, SW1

Very attractive exterior aspect, including an extraordinary ‘bowed' lead light frontage with picked coloured glasswork; I can only imagine it originally curved around an interior pillar (and the ceiling markings may support that). Enter to dark wood panelling, bar to left with old tiled raised surround, bar-back of wood and etched mirrors. Nice large arched windows opposite bar, flush-bolted to each side, but unfortunate mock panelling in centre with poor finish & wrongly directed grain bringing a damning verdict from my carpenter pal. Peripheral tall tables & window drinking ledges, decent soundtrack – Lennon Come Together, then mellow jazzy blues. I failed to investigate the upstairs ‘Theatre Bar' but the ground level was small but very nicely formed, quiet Sat pm. Pint of TT Landlord & halves of London Porter & HogsBack TEA came to £6.30 (my round, ouch!), the halves were in very good nick, but the pint was pretty average, Pride was the other beer on tap.

This is a small single room pub close to St James’ Square and easily reached from Green Park tube station. The front windows on approach make quite an appealing sight, with leaded panes presented in a lattice formation with a variety of stained glass inserts which all look very nice when backlit in the evening. The interior is bare boarded and sees the servery running along the left hand wall with rather minimal seating options opposite. The dark wood servery has a rather chunky counter, pillars with basic cut glass on them and a rather appealing glazed tile canopy. The bar back also has some decent glasswork, albeit slightly obscured by the general paraphernalia dotted around. Much of the room has dark wood panelling and the furnishings are mostly in the form of high tables and stools and the odd drinking ledge. The windows to the right of the room have some even larger stained glass sections and to one side the royal coat of arms stands proud on the wall. Elsewhere I noted a lightshade made from antlers and a TV screen showing muted news coverage with music playing very quietly in the background. A sign pointed the way to the upstairs theatre bar – a nod to the St James’ Theatre which previously stood nearby until its demolition in the late 1950’s – but I didn’t explore. Plenty of hand pumps lined the bar, but one was unclipped and another doubled up, so I eventually established that there were four ales available – Greene King IPA, Morland Old Speckled Hen, Taylor Landlord and Brighton Bier The Fall Guy (a collaboration with Greene King). The latter set me back £4.10 and was in reasonable shape. The bar staff seemed pretty friendly and had a good rapport with their regulars. One of the barmen complimented a customer on his smart new jacket, telling him he looked “very dapper”, but sadly did not see fit to lavish such praise on my hoodie. This is a pretty decent pub with some interesting features, pleasant service and a passable range of beers. Whilst it doesn’t quite match up to the grand interiors or extensive beer selections of other pubs in and around the area, it remains a good solid option and one I’d be happy to revisit.