The Water Poet, Shoreditch, E1

Finally managed to get round to visiting to see how this place performs on an early mid week evening. Will agree with Clive that this remains an ‘In place’ for the surrounding office workers and Hoxtonites. It was packed out early evening with all three serving areas going, including the extra room on the opposite side of the outside courtyard. Lively, mixed and varied crowd of all ages and creeds. Plenty of office workers mingling early evening and these are steadily replaced by the surrounding student population as the evening gets later. But still probably remains too Bohemian and too loud for an old traditionalist like me. They appear to move more bottled wine and bottled Lagers that you stick bits of fruit in than ale. But in saying that the Ale choice has certainly improved since my last visit and there are now four handpumps on the front bar area. These were Adnams, London Pride, Doombar and Trumans Runner from the concern trying to revive the name and brewing at the Nethergate Brewery. This last one was a nice touch when considering this is one of the closest pubs to the site of the former Trumans Brewery on Brick Lane. As Clive mentions, if you’re not up to mingling with the crowd then this place is best visited outside of peak time, otherwise its queuing several deep at the small serving areas dotted about the pub. However the front bar was being worked by a bar maid who was the best example of juggling three orders in parallel that I have seen and was a credit to her profession.