By George

Pub 256. The George, 10th March 2014.

Apologies for the Google picture, but as this is one of least photogenic pubs in Camden I don't think it matters much. I think the exterior tells you want sort of pub it's going to be.

Very modern, probably wanting to be more of a wine bar with that odd smell of cleaner hanging heavy in the air. The barmaid was nice and the Doom Bar was a snip at £3.60 - I think. But it tasted a bit funny. I drank it mind, but didn't stop for another. The array of worryingly large loud speakers on the wall didn't bode well for when it's busy.
The big opening windows and outside area at the front might be nice on a hot day, but there again I prefer to be inside a pub whatever the weather. I'm sure the local profs and suits like it here though.

Phil her up

Pub 255. Philomena's, 10th March 2014.

Not only is at a Irish Bar, but it's an Irish Bar & Kitchen! Double the craic. It used to be an O'Neils (then a "Cafe Bar") and before that The Sugar Loaf, which goes back to God knows when and just occupied the left hand bit. But enough of history - how about the present?

It's very nice. Quiet, nicely gloomy, and comfy & cosy with it. Their own eponymous brew was nice enough - £4 a pint though you would hope so. A few tourists were lapping up the genuine Irish charm tucked away at the back, and a few more more wiley drinkers were sat at the bar. All very nice for a Covent Garden I suppose. I even found a table for me next Valentine's Day!

Total Control

Pub 254. TCR Bar, 4th March 2014.

When I was a nipper TCR stood for Total Control Racing, which was a fancier Scalextric. I think it was fancier - I never had one. Anyways, now it stands for Tottenham Court Road. And this is the Tottenham Court Road Lounge Bar Restaurant. TCR Bar to its friends - which can't be many.

Hard to believe now there's been a pub here since 1775 - The New Inn which mysteriously went missingin 1941. When rebuilt in 1951 we got this building and it became Ye Olde Surgeon. Then The Pint Pot. Then The Bar at TCR. Now the TCR Bar. Follow that? I think I know which incarnation I would have preferred - damn Luftwaffe!!

Anyways, it's bland and soulless, but quiet none-the-less - music turned down and just at one end of the bar. Quiet apart from the few clientele that are in insist on speaking to each loudly in a Middle Eastern bark from opposite ends of the long room. The Doom Bar was £2.20 for a half - obviously targeting a higher income stream than my own, so I'll leave them to it, I can only afford a Scalextric.

The Northumberland Arms.

Pub 253. The Northumberland Arms, 3rd March 2014.

Gosh, I can't stand music in pubs. In a pub, on a weekday afternoon when there's only two middle-aged gentleman in, both of them ensconced in their papers, what is the need for very loud music? Nice music fair enough, but even so - who's it for??
I was in a pub on Friday night, one that is always very loud anyways, and this night was no different. While I was the bar the bar-maid saw fit to turn the music up even more - presumably it was a song she liked. Bar staff of a certain age can be like that. I involuntarily grimaced at the aural assault I was now getting which she saw. "Too loud for you?" she sarcastically enquired, "Yes" I replied. "You only have to ask to turn it down it you know..." she said back. As she was doing so a chap behind the bar nodded at her and mentioned something about the neighbours. After she came up to me and said "It is a Friday night you know... we've got to try to give it some semblance of a Friday." The place was packed. I gave her a "bollocks" look.
Anyways, back to the Northumberland.

As I ponderously ordered thus "Hmmm, I'll have a half of ... ummm...." the bar inserted an "ooh!" as if to say just a half. That's not happened for a while. Mind you at £2.10 for half the Wychwood's Dirty Tackle I don't think I could afford a pint.
 

There's not much more to add really. At one point the next song to come on was Scott Joplin's The Entertainer. Ooh I like this one! I thought. But then the 80s soft rock continued - it was just the barmaid's ring tone.