The small facade of the Coach and Horses, which forms part of the parade of buildings on Wellington Street, can always be spotted by the hanging baskets and the pavement loiterers that stand beneath them.

The Venue
The best place to start is by saying the Coach and Horses is a very old fashioned pub. Its decor is filled with the kind of small touches that seem to be a dying breed these days. The green carpet that covers the floor is fairly immaculate for a pub and this cleanliness immediately makes the place seem like a home away from home; shoes should be taken off at the door, or wiped thoroughly at the very least. There is a sandwich bar that would seem to hold some of the food that the pub serves and this is just an extension of the drinks bar, it’s another thing that left most pubs sometime in the nineties in the same way that small glass cabinets containing chocolate bars disappeared from their shelves.

There are stalls around the sides of the square-shaped pub and they lean into the mirrored shelf that runs around the edge in tandem with them. As there is no seating in the middle of the space, to display the fine upkeep of the carpet you’d presume, it does resemble an old school disco with people waiting for others to make the first move to the middle. This isn’t such a bad thing as the space begins to fill with people as the numbers inside grow and you can put it down to another one of the pub’s quaint attractions. The walls show off the fact that someone here is a big golf fan as there are frames and frames of fairways and golfers for decoration.

The Atmosphere
The Coach and Horses is as traditional as they come and even the bar staff wear a shirt and tie to keep up the fine appearance of the place. The ages of drinkers range predominantly from the middle aged upwards. It is calm and controlled as people talk rather than shout and sip rather than gulp. Whilst this kind of thing may not inspire any sense of a rampaging night out, it seems to be what the people are here for and, coupled with the fine whiskeys and sandwich selection, that’s just fine.

The Food
The sandwich bar is in full effect advertising both hot and cold crusty treats. There is roast beef, salted beef and limerick ham in the hot corner and tuna mayonnaise, oak smoked ham and cheese in the cold. It is simple yet effective eating.

The Drink
The pub offers over 70 Irish and Scottish whiskeys and the upper echelons of the bar are lined with the bottles to prove it. For those out there who are partial to this kind of thing the Coach and Horses is a rare type of Central London boozer and is perhaps to be cherished for this. The pub also serves the Best bitter and Spitfire cask ales as well as Fosters, Heineken, Kronenbourg and San Miguel on draught - a good choice for a small pub.

The Last Word
The Coach and Horses may share the name as so many of the capital’s other pubs but it has originality in its whiskey, sandwiches and golfing vistas plus a carpet that demands to be trampled.

venue information venue map view london review user reviews (1)