Pakenham Arms

No Longer In Business

Unfortunately closed bar, fond memories of when it had insane late opening hours (for central London) to cater for the postal workers next door. Used to sell a decent pint of Harvey’s back in the day.

UPDATE: Currently (September 2015) closed and has been since Summer 2014 supposedly for building works after a change of ownershp. Whether it will reopen seems uncertain.

Heavily patronised by posties from the sorting office over the road. as it’s owned by thje same people as the Botanist it’s a handy venue to pick up their beers without going out to Kew. Has a few guest beers too although they are not always the most exciting.

Visited 18/1-2013 on another great London Pub Crawl. Spacy, cosy city pub, with a large center bar. They have a nice selection of Botanist beers and from other breweries as well. Served in good condition. Friendly staff, and the food looked great..

As a local of the area I have to comment that the decline in this pub over the past 18 months has been nothing short of shocking. It used to be a light airy venue at the heart of the community, frequented by a great bunch of locals, posties from Mount Pleasant and professionals and office staff. Now it is pretty much abandoned by them all, and attracts an odd clientele - a mix of die hard posties (the rest have vanished to The Apple Tree and The Exmouth Arms), professional drunks, and lost tourists. So what has gone wrong - a light airy venue with a great atmosphere has been into an oppressive cave with dodgy cheap photos filling every possible piece of wall, and a direct contrast to the explosion of flower boxes outside. The friendly entertaining staff have mostly been replaced by a strange bunch who interact with an elite group of their friends and thats about it - when they are actually behind the bar - they seem to spend a lot of time outside smoking. The drinks choice varies from week to week - sometimes they don’t even have any overpriced white wine at all, which would appear to indicate bigger underlying problems. Real Ale fans seem to have abandoned it for some of the other bars in the area. Some days there is an appalling smell, some days not. Sky Sports and a decent sound system is long gone replaced by a selection of music that is quite weird. Positives - they have a chef who seems inventive and waiting for a chance to shine, the infestation of rodents appears to have been sorted for the time being, and the lights in the toilet have been fixed. It is really sad that what could be a viable business is being systematically destroyed - it is rumoured to be on the market - hopefully any new owners will breathe life into, and indeed restore this once great centre of the community back to its former status

A postman’s pub, which is not unusual given its Mount Pleasant location. It is an attractive street corner pub with a well kept exterior that includes some picnic tables in what is a very urban environment. Inside it is a relaxed atmosphere either side of the central bar with a fairly simple but effective decor and furniture. There’s plenty of ales on offer here.

I liked this pub. Even with some locals at the bar, we were served by a friendly and helpful bloke. The beers we had, and there is a great selection here for a pub that is a bit out of the way, were all top notch, and an interesting selection. The ambience was nice, wasn’t sure if it was up market or had pretensions to be - hope not, because they have achieved the kind of pub I would happily spend a Saturday afternoon in.

Street corner pub that really has improved lately when it comes to beers on cask and bottles. It has become a part of the Convivial London pubs which means that you can get the Botanist Beers on cask here. Expect also to find ales from Sharps and Twickenham among the 12 hand pumps. Cosy pub divided into two sections by a half moon/four-sided bar. Good food and friendly service. It’s located off Gray’s Inn Rd within walking distance to Gunmakers Arms, Craft Beer & Co, Queens Head and a few decent Youngs pubs. For us it was a thrill to meet the one and only Harrisoni unexpectedly here searching for Botanist beers (Visited 01.11.2012).

A good-looking pub with a great ambience - nice seating options, great music (including vinyl), lots of pubbiness. They have 12 cask lines but on my visit (which was fairly early on a Friday night) only four of the lines were running. That’s pretty awful, if you ask me. Thankfully the pumps not in service included the likes of Doom Bar, Greene King, Adnams - stuff that I wouldn’t have tried anyway - and two of the four pumps running had some Botanist beers that I’d not had before. So I’m not really sure what to make of this place. If you aren’t showcasing your best stuff on a Friday night, I hate to think what Monday would look like. Prices are average, service is fine. Anyway, while I liked the chilled out vibe here, because of the suspect cask operation I’m not really in a hurry to come back.

A decent pub located in a somewhat awkward location off Farringdon Road. When I visited, there were 12 beers on cask available plus 5 macro lagers on keg. While the cask options were plentiful, I can’t say they were that interesting. There were 3 options from Caledonian, some Adnams beers, and a few other random beers including the omnipotent Doom Bar. No beers were from local breweries. The pub has a nice, cheery interior. There are plenty of seating options. The bar has a library of LPs that you can play, which is a nice bonus. Prices were normal for central London. Overall, I really hope this pub improves their cask offerings, because it has the makings of a great pub. It’d be a shame to waste those handpumps. One to watch, though I don’t particularly recommend a visit at this time.

A wonderful pub in the center of London. Located in a relatively affluent area, the location belies its pricing. Great ambiance, good taste in music (you can bring your own LPs to play), and amazing Sunday roasts. The selection of beers on tap and in bottles is standard with selections available from Oxfordshire among other.