Walkers of St James, St James's, SW1

The name conjures up images of an old wine vault with cobwebs, old barrels and dusty bottles stacked up to the ceiling so I was a bit surprised to find that WOSJ is little more than a basic, functional but fairly cosy bar that appears to trade on a posh and rather pretentious name. Once through the reception like entrance, a short flight of stairs takes you into a quite spacious but rather dark split level bar. Being below street level, there is no natural light and the initial impressions as you descend are that this is a gloomy and rather soulless place. The bar area has bare wooden floors and to the rear is a raised section with carpeted, screened off areas, built in leather seats and lots of fake wooden beams in an attempt to replicate an olde worlde flavour. The dark nature of the bar is kept up by the textured walls that are painted in a dark, rich burgundy and what illumination there is comes from some quite unusual lamps and the 2 large plasma screens (nothing anywhere mentioned anything about having Sky). There were 2 Real Ales on my visit - Deuchers (£3.00) and Pedigree (didn't stick around to check price) plus 1 redundant pump. Service was fine although it was fairly quiet at the time. Overall, a neat, tidy and comfortable place but ultimately lacking any real character. There are far better options within a short walk.

I found this cellar bar to be a bit depressing, which wasn’t helped by the lounge music, random dim lighting and dark wood furnishings. The manager seemed exasperated with his staff who didn’t seem to know what they were doing and the barman that served me had a real struggle understanding my London accent. The bar is located in the far corner of the pub and although there were three hand pumps only one was being used to dispense Landlord. Peroni was also available alongside a standard draught selection from which I chose the Guinness which wasn’t up to scratch. There are a couple of plasma screens and one of these was showing muted BBC news and after some investigation I ascertained that there is no Sky facility, which was of no surprise. I cannot see myself returning as there are far better pubs in this area.