Old Fountain, Old Street, EC1

There’s always a changing selection of ales available - they had several decent ales on when I was in there at lunchtime earlier this week – Dark Star Old Chestnut; Meantime Pale Ale; Mauldon Simply the Best; something from Otley (at 4.2%) and Pontypridd (at 5.5%), as well as London Pride. The pub doesn’t look like much from the outside if you approach it from the Peerless St entrance; in fact it doesn’t really look open, but once inside it opens up into a fairly large and welcoming pub. The clientele comprised mainly of office workers, as far as I could tell. There’s an old-fashioned food counter at the back of the lower bar where you can see the food on offer. They specialise in reasonably priced pub grub. I had an excellent ham sandwich at £2.75, and the most expensive thing on offer was Cumberland Sausages, mash and onion gravy at £5.95. There was a TV, but it was not switched on; a fish tank; and carpeted throughout, with only normal tables and chairs. Luckily this pub remains unchanged every time I visit it – which is a very, very good thing. It quite rightly features as one of the capital’s finest real ale pubs. So, a comfortable and welcoming pub with good beer and good food. That’ll do it for me. Highly recommended.

Randomness Guide to London - Old Fountain entry

Randomness Guide to London - Old Fountain entry

Not too far from Old Street station, this is one of the capital's best ale houses. The split level bar has eight hand pumps and a recent visit saw Dark Star Over the Moon, London Pride, Crouch Vale Amarillo and Sovereign, Otley 01, Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde, Adnams May Day and something from Walton’s available alongside a good bottled selection of Otley beers. I tried a pint of the Amarillo which was absolutely fantastic and indicative of the excellent quality maintained here. The larger room has plenty of seating and most of the regulars were sat along the bar at this end. The smaller, lower room had a food service area (Mains £5, Pizza menu £6) and a few more tables. The decor was fairly bland except for a colourful fish tank whilst a dartboard was visible, but unplayable due to the table layout. An outstanding ale destination pub and one that I'm keen to return to next time I'm in town.

After sinking a few too many pints I happened upon this place and thanked the beer fairies for the big fat slice of luck that I was dished up. This place has a good atmosphere and a large selection of very good beer. There's a small glass display area at the front of the pub with a selection of sandwiches and a chalk board advertising jacket potatoes and omelettes at reasonable prices. The governor seems ok and there is a dartboard, although there were a few tables on the oche during my visit. After an evening visiting some very uninspiring pubs I was glad to find this place and I will make a detour to visit it again.

This pub does not look very inviting from the outside, but ignore that because inside for the real ale buffs is a gem to experience. Decent looking traditional interior and its two distinct areas support enough seating and standing areas to enjoy the ale, and something you don't see in pubs very much now, a tropical fish tank bubbling away on one of the walls. 8 Real Ales on, which included during this visit Test Brew 2 and White Mountain IPA from the Red Squirrel brewery in Hertford, Ascot Ales Posh Pooch and Alligator Ale, Whitstable Brewery East India pale Ale and Adnams Old Ale, all dispensed by three hard working bar keeps who knew what they were doing. There are four pumps on each bar section, but as they are double clipped, you can see all the beers on irrespective of where you are standing.. Also apparently it does plain simple pub nosh as well from the display counter but have only visited in the evening and never tried this.