Wenlock Arms, 8th February

I almost forgot to post this! So here it is, out of order:

I do seem to have a lot of things on my List without any real idea of why they’re there because they’ve been on there for so long. Such is The Wenlock Arms. I have a vague feeling it came from my Time Out 1000 Things to do book but I’m not sure. I know it was threatened with closure at some point but was saved from such a fate and opened by new management.

I went on a Monday night, and it was far from heaving. I cannot imagine it ever gets particularly packed as the amount of passing traffic it would attract would be around nil. You either know it’s there and have it as a destination already, or you would never stumble across it. It’s down a residential road about halfway between angel and Old Street.

It’s very much a ‘proper’ pub but not especially cosy at that. It’s all tables and chairs with very little adorning the walls. It feels like it is made for men, with none of that fancy nonsense. Just chairs, tables and beer. (But luckily also wine). So it is not very atmospheric. They seemed to have quite a few beers on offer and the prices were good. But I am not a beer lover, and good prices are not enough to tempt me back. Ultimately, it felt too stark.