London – Eating & Drinking – Pubs & Bars – Pubs

The Speaker is a neat, cosy little bolthole tucked away in Westminster – a perfect place to be snugly installed with a pint of real ale when the freezing rain’s lashing down outside!

If it were smelly (it isn't) you could call it "The Sneaker"!

A favourite of nearby officeworkers (and often, parlimentarians), if you arrive much after 5pm – or at any time on a Friday night – the chances of finding one of the few available seats is fairly minimal. You would never call The Speaker a spacious place.

The selection of real ale is always excellent – often featuring beers from the Dark Star brewery, but even when you’re not lucky enough to see one of them the lineup’s seldom a disappointment. And the landlord knows what he’s doing. It’s not an Ale Pub by a longshot though, and there’s plenty of the usual pub fare to please most punters (as well as, I’m told, quite a decent wine stable – no doubt a small concession to the tastes of the visitors from Westminster).

A traditional “woody” pub which avoids the “old man pub” dinginess with brightness & character, and the fact it’s always quite busy accurately reflects this.

Check out my review of The Speaker – I am mrfrisky – on Qype