Captains Cabin, Westminster, SW1

The Captains Cabin stands on the site of a previous Coaching Inn called the Cock that was later known as the Punch House. The current building was formerly a private residence whose rooms and floors all bore nautical names hence when the building became a pub, the nautical theme stuck. The pub is quite tucked away and generally overlooked by most West End visitors. The pub is split across 2 floors, the main downstairs bar being L-shaped with a large expanse of standing room in front of bar and seating pushed to sides. The floor has a ships planking effect and there are several nautical pictures in keeping with the pub’s name although you can’t help feel it is all a bit contrived. The far end is slightly rasied and contains some Shakespeare influenced pictures. The upstairs bar is generally a bit more sedate and can be reserved for private functions and meetings. In the 1960’s the cast of BBC’s Round The Horn used to meet here being close to the Paris Theatre studios where the programme was recorded. The pub is currently part of Punch Tavern’s Taylor Walker brand with the formulaic and safe as houses food and drink offerings that go with it. The 6 hand pumps offered a very uninspiring choice of London Pride, Bombardier, Spitfire and London Gold but on the plus side, prices are reasonable for the area (£3.25 for London Gold). The upstairs bar has 4 hand pumps that echo the same choices. The food menu is much of a muchness that you find across the pub chains with main courses around £7-£10. Service was fine albeit the place wasn’t very busy and the imported bar maid that seved me was actually quite cheerful and jolly, unlike some of the morose automatons you find across the West End. There is no real reason not to pay the pub a vist but on the whole it covers the basics without having much to make it stand out against its competitors. Unfortunately I find myself thinking that about so many West End pubs.

Fairly functional Dark wood exterior Punch taverns chain pub offering in the back streets just off Haymarket. Very busy when I popped in early evening, especially as it was raining and only the desperate smokers were braving trying to shelter underneath the smallish outside awning. But still managed to get served promptly with a decent pint of Adnams Broadside. Still six hand pumps in operation but the beer choice was unfortunately not as good as it could have been as four of these were double up with London Pride and Youngs Bitter and the last one was Bombadier. The pub has a fairly decent space being on two levels and can take a fair few people without being overly crowded, so I could well find myself looking it up if in the area again.

Fairly typical ex-Spirit Group exterior and interior decor, but retaining a few features of interest despite the various refurbishments over the years (e.g. the figurehead above the corner door). It is also in the process of being rebranded as a Taylor Walker outlet by Punch Taverns. The main bar area is reasonably large, but if busy you can usually access the upstairs bar which is of about equal size but much less crowded. Six handpumps downstairs, with a further four at first-floor level, offering usual suspects such as Pride, London Gold and Spitfire plus the regular Directors and a guest such as Adnams Christmas Cheer (£3.45, but in excellent condition). Overall, it gives the impression of being well managed and I think it's pretty good for a chain pub in central London.

Randomness Guide to London - Captain's Cabin entry

Randomness Guide to London - Captain's Cabin entry

I popped in here late one recent Friday afternoon and it was very busy with local office workers and tourists tucking into fish and chips. The barmaid was friendly enough, but out of the six hand pumps only Batemans Miss Scotland and an ale from Brains were still on as the two Directors and two Pride hand pumps were off. There is a decent sized standard draught selection and my Guinness was up to scratch. The main bar area is pretty big and there are a couple of more intimate sections wrapped around either end of it. There is also an upstairs bar that I shamefully didn’t visit, but I did notice a dartboard case on the wall, but there were some very heavy tables on the oche so I doubt that there is a usable board in there. I wouldn’t go out of my way to drink here as there are better pubs in the area and the most relaxed I was during my visit was standing under the awning out the front whilst having a smoke.

This pub is hidden away in a side street between The Haymarket and Regent Street. They had GKIPA and Pride on (like everywhere in London it seems) as well as Courage Directors and Highgate Stocking Filler – the latter was pretty good, as well as making a welcome change from the usual suspects. It's now very different from its incarnation as the backstreet pub that I knew more than 30 years ago. It's been made over to death and is now a typical large pubco offering. It's OK I suppose if you like that sort of place – functional but characterless.