The Globe, Moorgate, EC2

The Globe is a Nicholson's pub on a prominent corner in the Moorgate area of the City of London. The ground floor has an L-shaped bar and a separate room called Keats Room. Upstairs is a dining room. Downstairs are the smelliest toilets I've visited for quite a while. The gents smelt like a fishing trawler. Beers on Fuller's London Pride, Sharp's Doom Bar, St Austell Nicholson's Pale Ale & Tribute, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Adnams Ghost Ship, Titanic Plum Porter & Fyne Vital Spark. I remember having the Vital Spark in a bottle on a recent visit to Oban, but this was the first time I'd had it on cask. I still wasn't impressed with it. Clientele were a mixture of city workers and tourists. Bar staff seemed moody when interacting with customers, buy quite chirpy when interacting with each other. Not a bad Nicholson's pub overall though.

I had a half of Thornbridge Wild Holly (£2.35 a half) which is obviously a Christmas ale, but as is the case with all Christmas ales as far as I can tell, was a rich and malty offering. Being a Nicholson's pub there were loads of other ales on as well. As it was close to Christmas, there was a decorated tree near the door, and a cauldron of mulled wine on the counter. They promote Pilsner Urquell in here, with a couple of brass tanks in one of the corners. They claim that the Pilsner they serve is as it was when it left Pilzen, as if that was a good thing. There was an area on the right called "Keats at the Globe", which appeared to be a dining room, but I didn't see a menu. The interior is fairly characterless - it looked a bit like a bogstandard Taylor Walker pub. The furnishing are all tall tables/tall benches at tall tables, so there's nowhere comfortable to sit. Being just a stone's throw from the City, and approaching Christmas, it was inevitably quite busy during my mid-afternoon visit, and I ended up propping up the bar next to the mulled wine cauldron. Perhaps at a quiet time it would be marginally better, but not much I suspect. But my Wild Holly was excellent, so that notches it up to a 5.

I came here once before in the summer of 2001 so can't really recall it, but I think that it was more traditional with the stinky patterned carpet so beloved of chain pubs. This Nicholson's is a little unusual as it lacks the 'olde worlde' dark panelled interiors of others and looks more like a modern gastropub with a blue/grey colour scheme and two copper ale tanks (presumably containing lager) next to the bar. Music played at a moderate level and TVs showed the Olympics with the sound down. There were 10 ales on - too many to document but I recall Fuller's London Pride, Sambrook's Wandle and a couple from Truman's. I plumped for a half of Glamorgan's Pales of the Unexpected at a reasonable £2.15 and it was refreshing and decent on this balmy night. Overall this isn't a very interesting place and there's better - barely - to be had locally so I doubt I'll return. Closes at 5.00 pm on Saturdays and closed all day Sundays.

A somewhat chaotic Nicholson's, certainly not their best effort. The customers appeared mainly to be wannabee bankers and belligerent barrow-boys, while the foreign staff were charmless and not terribly helpful. There is a cash machine in the bar. The main bar wasn't a particularly comfortable place to eat, while the Keats Bar was extremely loud. Of the nine handpumps, only 5 were dispensing. I had a pint of Adnams Ghost Ship which was, to be fair, in very good condition. It's fine for a boozy lunch if you don't mind the noise, and I would probably include in an evening crawl simply for its beer quality.

2 bar Nicholson's pub with 9 real ale taps in each bar. Not the most characterful interior by Nicholson's standards.