Ye Olde Watling, Mansion House, EC4

A traditional Nicholson’s street corner pub just along the road from St Paul’s Cathedral, this seems very popular with the after-work crowd and is invariably very busy in the road outside, even to the extent that it can be quite difficult to get in to the actual pub. This was again the case on my recent Tuesday evening visit, although fortunately there was standing space inside the pub, even though all tables were occupied. It's quite traditional internally with sanded wooden boards on the floor and plenty of black beams on both the ceiling and walls, with white painted plasterwork in between giving in something of a Tudor style. There were also some very chunky black supporting pillars as well as a black wooden partition with frosted glass inserts. Dark wood panelling was on the lower part of the walls, and a few old pictures and a history board were on the walls. Seating was rather limited, with a few small brass tables in the front bar, as well as some stools in the window. The rear bar was broadly similar in terms of décor, but did have plenty of tables and chairs squeezed in, and is presumably used more for eating. Beers on tap were Nicholson’s Pale, Ale, Ghost Ship, Doom Bar and London Pride, whilst Tribute was apparently coming soon and a further three pumps appeared unused. The solitary cider meanwhile was Mortimer’s Orchard. Overall, a pretty decent pub, but time your visit to avoid early evenings if you want to get a seat.

Another decent Nicolson pub with formulaic interior.Good selection of beers and friendly barmaid.Peerless -ice breaker,Great Newsome -pigs ear and my Bru -stout was good if a bit thin.