The Crown, Bloomsbury

pub details:

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location:

Bloomsbury

address:

51 New Oxford Street, WC1A 1BL

phone:

0871 258 7271*
* calls cost 10p/minute, click here for more about 0871 numbers.

nearest stations:

Tottenham Court Road London Underground station
(300m) - zone 1

Covent Garden London Underground station
(470m) - zone 1

Holborn London Underground station
(480m) - zone 1

Leicester Square London Underground station
(610m) - zone 1

Goodge Street London Underground station
(690m) - zone 1

how to find it:

From Tottenham Court Road tube, turn east up New Oxford Street (towards Holborn) past Centre Point. The pub is on your right in the next block after the traffic lights at the junction with Bloomsbury Street.

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nearby attraction(s):

Shaftesbury Avenue Theatre (70m)

Dominion Theatre (200m)

British Museum (230m)

The Crown is a typical Sammy Smiths pub and it does well on their simple formula: traditional interior, the standard range of beers and jovial bar staff. There is a problem at the Crown at the moment, however and it affects their strongest feature - the outdoor drinking space. Not so long ago drinkers at The Crown spilled out of the pub, not just on to the tables, but beyond them to the raised concrete square that seems to have been designed with the express intention of providing Crown drinkers with an excellent place to congregate on a summer's evening. This spilling-over was then curtailed and drinkers were confined to the roped-in table area, but now it seems an overzealous local has seen fit to complain about that too, and for the time being there is no outdoor drinking whatsoever, not even with your beer in a plastic cup for a sneaky cigarette by the door. The pub hangs on to its three pints however and we hope that the rights of Crown drinkers to enjoy their pint in the sun will be reinstated in time for the 2009 summer season - we'll keep you posted.

reviewed:
04/06/2009