63 Lambs Conduit Street,
London,
WC1N 3NB
0872 148 1697
The ViewLondon Review
Lamb’s Conduit Street is a little off the beaten track, but it’s definitely worth digging out an A-Z and tracking it down. A couple of stones throws away from Theobalds Road and the gridlock of Holborn, it’s pretty and lined with excellent little shops.
In fact, it’s probably a perfect Christmas shopping location – the kind of place where you’re guaranteed to find all sorts of unusual objects that you can be confident that none of your mates will have ever spotted before. Well, unless they work around the corner…
The Perseverance sits around the corner from Great Ormond Street Hospital, and is something of a legend in these parts. It used to be a horrible pseudo Irish affair, but thankfully that place closed down a couple of years ago.
The Perseverance is now a gastropub of some repute, attracting patronage and praise from across town. The upstairs room houses the sit down restaurant, leaving the downstairs area to function as a pleasant traditional boozer.
It’s very agreeably laid out, with a dark wooden floor, solid pub furniture and colourful flock wallpaper reminiscent of the days before most pubs had jumped on the All Bar One whitewash bandwagon.
We arrived at around 3.30pm on a Wednesday and were the only customers, but unlike empty cocktail bars which make you feel like you’re a social leper, having a pub to yourself is occasionally a good thing, and with New Order on the stereo we rapidly felt at home.
The beer selection is reasonable, but certainly not spectacular. The Directors was well-kept though, and we spied a range of bottled beers that would sate most appetites. The wine list was also pretty good, which you would expect for somewhere with a reputation for its food.
As the afternoon continued the pub gradually began to fill, first with skivers like ourselves, and later with people in vague work attire. Most people seemed to have chosen it for a reason though – because they liked it rather than because it was convenient. And like them, I shall be returning too.