The Marian Anderson, Clerkenwell, EC1

Official site of The Marian Anderson - themariananderson.com

Official site of The Marian Anderson - themariananderson.com

Lee Curtis, below, obviously the proprietor of this venue, describes what was once The Surprise as Clerkenwell's best sports pub and I'd find it hard to disagree. To describe The Bowler as a sports pub is the understatement of the century. Indeed a blackboard proclaims: 'Fact of the day: We love sports'; no kidding. The place was virtually dark with six TVs and a vast IMAX of a projector on one wall. This is a bit of a locals' pub and not a gastro venue, serving the likes of burgers. Furniture is mixed with some leatherette sofas. Ales on: Brakspeare's Bitter and Heritage and Wychwood's Hobgoblin at a rather steep £2.20 a half; it was ok. One for TV sports devotees only.

An L shaped pub with 5 tv,s and one massive screen showing the football.Very busy.Only 2 cask beers on Breakspear -bitter and Hobgoblin.

As you enter through the corner door you find yourself in a room with no bar counter and with all the scrubbed wooden tables, with fairly simple little chairs, laid for diners, leading one to think you've stumbled into a restaurant. Walking through the dining room and to the back on the left brings you into another area where the bar counter's located, and where there's a bit more seating consisting of red upholstered furnishings and a couple of standard tables. Unfortunately when I dropped in this area was being utilised as a marshalling area for a delivery of glasses, leaving me to retreat to one of the tall tables/tall stools in the dining room. Although food is obviously quite important here, I was the only person in at 12.30 PM, and there were no menus out on the tables. It had the look and feel of a place that hadn't yet opened for the day. Anyway, they did have on Hobgoblin, and Brakspear's Bitter (£1.85 a half), plus a Thatcher's cider on handpump. It didn't feel terribly comfortable in here, but maybe at another time it would be more lively.

The Bowler is set in the back streets just of farringdon road. Once inside the pub had a longish room that if a remember right was on two levels,the seating was normal tables and chairs,the pub was almost empty on our Thusrsday evening visit,which made this pub seem very depressing. There were no real ales on the bar,the bitter option was John Smiths smooth crap,we had a Guinness which was well below par. This was a very dissapointing pub at the time of our visit. Pub visited 17/8/2006