Well the pub has seen some changes over the years and I popped back in this week, and was not disappointed.

It is a lovely proper London pub, great interior and amazing chandelier.

Good selection of lagers and real ale, and not on the pricey side either! £3.80 a pint is excellent in central London. Well worth a visit

I'm working close to the old shades , but always went to different pubs . Recently we went there a few times . We had tried their 5 pounds lunch offer which was really tasty and the staff really friendly , so we decided to go for drink after work. They had good selection of ales , quick service and plus the pub looks lovely in the evenings. Good night out, only they closing at midnight so we had to continue in different bar after. Recommended !

Dropped by Old Shades a few years ago and loved the food there. Great fish & chips, bangers & mash, etc. When I visited London last year I very much looked forward to eating there again. Dropped by twice and was very disappointed both times. The food was just not very good. I hope Old Shades takes some steps to get back to where they were.

The Old Shades used to be my favourite pub in Whitehall. I work nearby and my team used to head to the Old Shades quite regularly. You could always relie on a good atmosphere and service, good prices and you could always find a big table to sit at with a large group of people towards the back of the pub. I hadn't been to the Old Shades in about 6 months but had previously gone quite regularly, so I decided to invite all my colleagues there to celebrate my promotion last week (17 June 2011). However they have now introduced a new expensive food menu and stopped allowing anyone to sit in the back of the pub (where most of the seats are) unless they order a £20 main meal each! This is not clear from the new sign they have - it simply says you have to order food to sit in the area. I ordered a few starters to share with my colleagues but before we could even begin to eat them we were told we had to order a £20 main each or leave! This was exceedingly rude, especially since we were the only group of people sitting in the area and there were plenty tables available for other people to sit at if they wished to order main meals. Unfortunately not all my colleagues could afford a £20 main meal, therefore we had to leave and go to a different pub on Whitehall. This new rule and set up seemed completely insane! I had invited over 30 colleagues to join me at the Old Shades that evening, many of whom were new and had never been there before. I had planned to stay at the pub all evening 5pm- closing, so this would have brought in a reasonable amount of custom and hopefully encouraged colleagues to keep going back but we were asked to leave before many people could arrive and the staff were so rude that I will never be going back to Old Shades, neither will my colleagues! I presume they have made the back of the pub a dining only area to try to bring in more custom, but this has backfired and seems to actually penalise regular customers who just wanted to go to the pub for drink!

Every time we come to London, The Old Shades is the first pub we go to. It's so charming and comfy, we don't know any better pub.The pub provides a seasional changing ale card ( e.g. "Winter Ales") and there is a wide selection of food available, like the typical sandwiches and burgers, but also delicious pies and stuff like that. I can really recommend this pub.

Every time we come to London, The Old Shades is the first pub we go to. It's so charming and comfy, we don't know any better pub.The pub provides a seasional changing ale card ( e.g. "Winter Ales") and there is a wide selection of food available, like the typical sandwiches and burgers, but also delicious pies and stuff like that. I can really recommend this pub.

There's a certain charm at Old Shades, with its old wooden furniture and pictures. The atmosphere is fairly quiet except for the footy games. You can usually always get a seat and the staff are nice. Old Shades is a good little pub.