The Duke of York, Marylebone, W1

The Duke of York looks promising with its traditional exterior on a corner plot with picnic tables on the path out front. Unfortunately the rectangular interior has nothing of note about it, except maybe the small upright piano mounted onto the left hand wall. I was the only customer, but there was a flow of people walking through the bar to the rear door that I imagine leads to some sort of accommodation. The bar counter supports three hand pumps, one of which was unused and the Fullers London Pride and Sharps Doom Bar were off. All is not lost though as there are Smirnoff cocktails on tap alongside a premium keg range. There are two televisions that were showing muted Wimbledon Tennis via BBC. This was muted in favour of some modern music that two young lads, who seemed to be in charge, were listening to. The barman was replaced halfway through my visit by an older man, and then the two young’uns upped and left. All a bit odd if you ask me.

Another late 18th century pub, rebuilt over one hundred years later for Charrington’s. In new hands since March 2017, this has largely been reinvented as a style bar with ‘boutique’ rooms above. Bare boarded of course, the bar frontage is field panelled, painted a smoky blue; the bar back is a flimsy tubular affair. Smoky blue paint has been applied to dado height match boarding, then pale grey to the ceiling, which is an indeterminate dark colour. Furniture is fairly normal, with flowers in little glass bottles to tables. Décor arrives in the form of some knickknacks and of all things, an upright piano bolted to a wall. Lighting in the main, comes from crystal chandeliers and music played, broadcast from a Black music radio station, with irritating DJ’s vocal interventions. One pump was unused, thereafter the barman was serving up the relentless London tedium that is Pride and Doom; my half of Goose Island IPA, price deleted, but more than £3.00 a half, no doubt. This is by no means a great place. The Groundhog Day ale selection coupled with live radio is incentive enough not to return.

Official site of Duke Rooms & Bar - www.thedukerooms.london

Official site of Duke Rooms & Bar - www.thedukerooms.london

One room with bar to the rear. Three hand pumps - only one actually serving weak ale. Mot impressive.

A lovely Victorian exterior that unfortunately doesn't extend into the inside which is a small and pretty turgid affair with dirty scuffed wood floor, white and blue walls and a general air of ‘meh’. The only real thing of interest are the original large obscured glass windows. Three pumps with just Sambrook Wandle on which was undrinkable despite two pints being poured through. Exchanged for a Yakima Red that looked dredged out of the Thames – not a cloudy beer in my experience from quality outlets. The ale stayed on, awaiting another victim whilst I pondered how much of the Red I should drink before calling gut rot. Pretty grim really, this place looks like it’s going to go under sooner rather than later – impressive given that WhatPub says it came under new management in March this year. Proof that any idiot can try and run a pub, I suppose. Literally nothing to reommend this place.

I wouldn't ordinarily visit an establishment which so blatently promotes itself via narcisistic self reviews, but I was in the area so decided to step in for a reality check. Four customers and two aussie staff were in the carpetted bar at lunchtime, beers on offer were 6X, IPA, Bombardier – had the latter, which was fine. Tables were set up for eating (with ketchup btls) , I didn't notice a food menu but the wine list led with Moet at a v reasonable £28.50 and the reverse showed features such as quiz night, 15min food turnover, summer pints of pimms. A plasma at each end of the bar suggests it is probably big on sport. I was always unlikely to be endeared to the D.O.M. having received a rude e-mail from one of its BITE incarnations following my comment (removed!) about self-aggrandisement, and that is still the case. Ordinary bar, ordinary beer. I moved on to the Masons (Badger beer and characterful pub) and the Carpenters (5 unusual real ales).

A fairly small single room with the bar on the back wall. Boarded floor, opposite the bar are three semi-circular banquettes in a line with a small round table for each. Elsewhere there are more small round tables, chairs and stools. White panelled ceiling, lower walls wainscoted and a mixture of 70s style Indian restaurant flock wallpaper and another with a bookcase pattern. Candle holders along the window cills, obscure leaded windows, on top of the bar back are a row of empty magnum sized Champagne bottles. Three handpumps, Tetley Cask, Adnam's Ghost Ship and Doom Bar turned around. There is also that shiny GK IPA font, I presumed with the real version. What was a little odd I thought was that of three TVs in what is a small area, one had the football on but two were showing a Swedish news channel with subtitles. Then I spotted a notice advertising that Swedish football is shown live. Perhaps there is a local Swedish population who use this pub, I don't know. At least Abba didn't come on the juke box. A fairly routine and inoffensive little pub, worth dropping in but not for a special visit.