St George's Tavern, SW1

A pleasant looking Victorian corner pub but despite its looks is rather formulaic and uninteresting as was the trio of beer offerings in Pride, Doom Bar and Nicholsons Pale Ale the latter costing £4.65 a pint, not an unexpected price in central London but I will walk on by next time.

Situated in a slightly unprepossessing area round the back of Victoria's myriad transport options and next to the passport office, this is a sub-standard rather plain pub, certainly by Nicholson's standards. The only item of interest is the retention of the Charrington's green banded leaded lights. Five ales on and I forgot what I had but it was fine though uninteresting - a bit like the pub. This place is ok if you're desperate for a drink, but if you can bear going without, there's no real incentive to visit.

2 floor Nicholson's pub I didn't visit the more formal dining area downstairs. By Nicholson's standards quite a plain interior but given the location maybe doesn't have to beat much.

Close to the rear entrance to Victoria station, this is a typical Nicholson's pub with a simple two room layout. You enter into the bare boarded main bar with the servery running along the rear wall and a series of pillars and sections of structural wall in between. High tables and stools have been arranged in the front part of the room and opposite the bar, whilst some comfier options can be found in the corners or through the door on the left hand side which leads into a room more suited to dining. This room seemed a little brighter and generally more pleasant than the main bar and was accordingly full on my Saturday evening visit. The ceiling is painted dark red and has a nice textured pattern running across it and I noticed leaded windows on two sides of the pub. A board on the front wall provides some information about Charles Morton who converted the pub into a variety theatre back in the 1800's. Some TV screens were showing muted rolling news channels whilst some music played quietly in the background, although this was lost under the general hubbub for the most part. Being a Nicholson's pub, a decent ale range can be counted upon, with options on this visit comprising Sharps Doom Bar, Inveralmond Pundie, By the Horns The Saint Irish Stout, Brains Café Phoenix Porter, Nicholson's Porter and Morland Old Speckled Hen. Four casks in cooler jackets were racked up on the bar back, but none were in use. The keg range included beers from Meantime as well as Mortimer's Orchard Cider. The keg range seemed to favour darker beers, so I went with the Irish Stout, which was in pretty good shape. This is a pretty good pub to know about, as it's far better than those around the other side of the station. It's not one of Nicholson's most interesting pubs but I thought it had enough about it to merit further investigation and I will no doubt be back when I'm next in need of a quick pre-train pint.

The St George’s Tavern has a traditional interior that one would expect from Nicholsons along with six hand pumps on the bar that, during my visit on Thursday afternoon, were drawing Tribute, London Pride, Doom Bar, Darkangel Cherry Porter, Moor Brewery’s Amoor and Liberation IPA. A couple of casks on the back bar were dispensing Traditional Scrumpy and Old Rosie ciders and there is a standard and premium draught selection. Food is served from 10am and the menu seems to be aimed at tourists with the mains costing around £10, but the lunch menu is a little cheaper with dishes costing around £8. This is a decent sized pub with a dining area to the left and a cellar bar that was closed during my visit. There is a plasma screen that was switched off and it wasn’t a surprise to see no Sky Sports advertisements. There was some very low background music playing and I noted that the pub closes at 23:30 every Friday and Saturday. There are better pubs in the area so I don’t plan to return.