The Griffin
Fifteen keg lines and one changing cask, poured under a Victorian bar-back that CAMRA rates as of special national historic interest.1
Why go
The pub is two buildings knocked into one. The older half runs down Ravey Street with detailing from about 1870, the corner section dates from around 1899, and between the wars Meux's Brewery refaced the ground floor in brown tile and left bas-relief panels advertising their own beer on the walls.1
Inside, the statutory listing names a behind-bar mirrored screen with Corinthian columns
, a boarded ceiling carried on slender cast iron columns
, and a back room lined with inscribed mirrors proclaiming the virtues of the drink on offer
. CAMRA's National Inventory gives the interior one star.1
The bar itself is current rather than preserved: one changing cask beer, fifteen kegs, forty bottles, card only.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: off the keg wall, since fifteen lines against one cask is where the choice is.1
- Avoid: Sunday, when it is shut, and cash, which it does not take.1
What locals & experts say
- CAMRA's National Inventory:
One star - A pub interior of special national historic interest
, and on what earns it,The star features here are the ornate Victorian bar-back and the range of advertising mirrors.
1 - CAMRA's survey of the bar:
Unspoilt Grade II listed pub. Now re-opened after refurbishment, selling a changing cask beer, 15 kegs and 40 bottles. Card payments only.
1 - Nobody has written down how any of it tastes on anything poured here.
Good to know
- Where: 93 Leonard Street EC2A 4RD, on the corner of Ravey Street. Old Street is about six minutes.
- Payment: card only.1
- Hours: shut on Sunday; the operator publishes noon to midnight most nights and later on Saturday.
- Listed: Grade II, and CAMRA National Inventory one star for the interior.1
Verdict
should-visit — Fifteen keg lines and one changing cask under a bar-back CAMRA rates as of special national historic interest, which is a combination London does not hand out often. The room is two buildings knocked together, the older half running down Ravey Street from about 1870 and the corner from around 1899, with Meux's Brewery brown tiling added between the wars and bas-relief panels advertising their beer still on the wall. Inside there is a mirrored screen with Corinthian columns, a boarded ceiling on cast-iron columns, and a back room lined with mirrors praising the drink. It re-opened after a refurbishment and takes card only. It stops short of the top rung because nobody has published a word about how the beer tastes, so the case is the building plus a well-stocked bar rather than a beer programme anybody has judged.