The Harp.

The Harp

Ten handpumps in a room the width of a corridor, and Bridget Walsh found two of them when she took the lease in 1995.63

Why go

Walsh came from Ireland in 1966, worked pub shifts to subsidise a typing job, and asked Courage to find her a pub.2 She got into real ale in 1974 because the stocktaker was into it.2 She took the Harp's lease from Charrington's, bought the freehold off Punch in 2010, and in the same year it became the first London pub ever to win CAMRA's National Pub of the Year, a title voted on by the campaign's members and judged on beer quality, service, decor, clientele and value.32

Her own explanation of it has no secret in it. It just comes down to the quality of your beer, customer service and cleanliness, she told Michelle Perrett. Those are always the most important things for any pub.2 Fuller's bought the place in 2014, upgraded the plumbing and the wiring and left the rest alone, and CAMRA's West London branch has kept giving it prizes since: Pub of the Year again in 2023, joint runner-up in 2025.1

The bar is one narrow room hung with mirrors and portraits, with no music and no television, and a quieter lounge upstairs. Musicians and stage hands from the London Coliseum come in through the back door between calls.1

Order this / avoid

• Order: whatever is newest on the guest pumps. Ten handpumps run classic casks alongside short-term guests.6
• Order: a half of the traditional cider or perry, which the pub calls its own specialty and sources from all around the country. Walsh used to serve it out of flagons from behind the bar.62
• Order: a pork pie or a sandwich if you need something. That is the extent of it, and it always has been: food was five percent of the business under Walsh.62
• Avoid: early evening downstairs if you want to sit. Seats are at a premium on a Monday, and the branch says the room can become very crowded. Climb to the lounge or take it outside, which is permitted.41

What locals & experts say

• The Standard's 50 best pubs, 2023, at number five: The Harp's reputation draws them all: City account managers, street sweepers, artists and piss artists. Even the Opera House orchestra can be spotted ducking in during intermissions.5
• Julian Hough, CAMRA's pubs director, on the national win: The most impressive aspect of the Harp is it retains its appeal as a true local, even though it's in the heart of London.3
• Matt Brown, Londonist: the biggest problem we could find with the Harp was that the beer was just too good. Once we had worked our way through all of them, we were sorely tempted to start again at the beginning. This can be a difficult pub to leave.4
• CAMRA's West London branch: deservedly popular as a main cask ale destination venue in central London.1
• The record: CAMRA National Pub of the Year 2010, London Cider Pub of the Year 2011, the Evening Standard's best London pub in 2019 and again in 2020, and the West London CAMRA award every year the pub has been eligible since 2006.46

Good to know

• Where: 47 Chandos Place WC2N 4HS, nearer Trafalgar Square than the middle of Covent Garden, which Walsh thought was why the tourists mostly went elsewhere.2
• Booking: none taken. The upstairs room can be hired for events.8
• The building dates from at least 1785 and traded as the Welsh Harp until 1995. Westminster lists it as an unlisted building of merit.1
• The alley next door, Brydges Place, was blocked by the neighbours for years until a CAMRA member and a local businessman got Westminster to reassert it as a public highway.1
• The awards board in the upstairs lounge lists them all, with room left on it.1

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: "Finest selection of craft cask." REAL.

Verdict

must-visit — A pub has stood at 47 Chandos Place since at least 1785, and ten handpumps run in a room the width of a corridor. Bridget Walsh found two of those pumps when she took the lease in 1995; by 2011 there were eight, four permanent and the rest changing daily, and in 2010 the Harp became the first London pub ever to take CAMRA's National Pub of the Year, a title voted by the campaign's members on beer quality, service, decor, clientele and value. Her own account of how has nothing clever in it: the quality of your beer, customer service and cleanliness. Fuller's bought it in 2014, upgraded the plumbing and the wiring, and left the rest alone; CAMRA's West London branch has kept giving it prizes, and The Standard put it fifth of fifty London pubs in 2023. There is no music, no television and no kitchen worth the name, just pork pies and sandwiches, which is the point. Order whatever is newest on the guest pumps and a half of the cider, and go upstairs if you want to sit down. Jeff calls it the finest selection of craft cask, and the record backs him.