The Lady Mildmay, Newington Green, N1

This is a large, heavily modernised pub on the South East corner of Newington Green. You're greeted on entering by a huge, open interior with high ceilings and bar floorboards which make it very echoey throughout. Whilst the pub has been opened out as much as is possible, its complex shape means that discernible separate rooms can be identified. The front room for example, is an awkward, irregular shape with an L-shaped bar counter on the back wall and a couple of seating areas off to either side. Large windows dominate the wall space, meaning decor is limited to a few blackboards listing various food and drink options, plus a scattering of somewhat dull photos. Standard tables and chairs line the perimeter each side of the bar and these are, rather uninspiringly, the only seating options in what is a pretty big space all told. The bar has a nice dark wood counter and modern white tile bar back that seems to fit well with the general modern, family-friendly feel the pub is seemingly aiming for. Past the right side of the bar, the pub runs back into a rear room, passing a kitchen serving area and nice stone fireplace on the way before emerging into another large seating area . Here you''ll find lots more standard seating, another nice fireplace, some retro posters and an upright piano, but on a relatively quiet mid-week evening, the room felt a little cut-off from the rest of the pub. There are some attractive ceiling decorations throughout the pub and I can't recall seeing any TV screens or hearing any piped music. There are five handpulls on the bar, one of which was out of action with a 'Coming Soon' clip for a Hammerton beer on it, leaving a choice of four ales - Twickenham redhead, Animal Gribbit, Redemption Big Chief and XT3. The Big Chief was served to me by a very friendly barmaid who was part of an small efficient team, and set me back £4.20. It was in good shape and I was planning on staying for another before I discovered there was another decent sounding pub nearby which I went to check out instead. I liked this place and thought that it just about held its own in the face of a pretty heavy handed refurbishment. The service was the stand-out for me, but the four interesting beers in good condition was a big positive and I can imagine with a bit more of a crowd, the pub could generate a pleasant atmosphere.

Official site of The Lady Mildmay - www.ladymildmay.com

Official site of The Lady Mildmay - www.ladymildmay.com