Historical version 4 of Princess Louise, WC1V 7BW (view current version)
- 208 High Holborn
- WC1V 7BW
- Brewery: Samuel Smith's
- Address: 208 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BW
- Locale: Holborn / Bloomsbury
- Nearby Tube stops: Holborn
Drinks
Samuel Smith's range. Sam Smith's cider �2.16/pint. Only one hand-pulled bitter, a Sam Smith's one.
Food
Full meals are only served when the restaurant isn't taken up by a private party. Food is served till about 8:30pm. The snacks menu includes veg nachos (�3.95, not very good), meat nachos (�4.50), sandwiches from �2.25 and baguettes from �2.95.
Service and Ambience
No piped music downstairs, yey.
The interior of this place is well worth a look. Highly ornate, lots of mirrors. The ceiling is pretty amazing. The first time I came up the stairs from the basement loo I had to stop and stare at it for a bit. (That might have been the beer though.)
It's a Grade II listed building.
Layout
One large room downstairs with a long oval bar in the middle, and a selection of seating around the edges. Not cramped, but not incredibly spacious either. There's a restaurant upstairs and a few seats outside on the pavement.
Disabled Access and Other Facilities
The restaurant upstairs can be booked out (at no charge if there are 35 or more of you) as a function room. It seats about 30-35 comfortably for dinner, but I'd judge you could easily fit more in for a more general get-together. It's got its own bar, and generally looks like a very pleasant, airy room. Unfortunately the toilets are two floors down, in the basement.
I keep hearing about how amazing the gents' is -- the pub is "worth a visit just to see the gents toilets alone" according to fancyapint.com -- but the ladies' is pretty appalling; as I wrote to the London.pm mailing list: "one of the toilets wasn't really actually attached to anything other than the sewage pipe; you could slide it around on the floor and there was a bit of a disturbing puddle. And the only way to get into the middle cubicle was to climb over the seat; and both the soap dispensers were broken sufficiently that I got bored of trying to mend them before I managed to succeed."
Other Reviews
Gatherings
The Princess Louise pub is used by the British Fantasy Society (BFS) for its monthly meeting. I have also attended a few book launches there though you do have to be invited -- AlexMcLintock