The Princess Louise

The Princess Louise is a famous pub in Holborn, central London, known for its traditional Victorian interior. Owned by the Samuel Smith Brewery.

Princess Louise Pub in Holborn, London | Home

The Princess Louise is a famous pub in Holborn, central London, known for its traditional Victorian interior.

If you’re looking for an honest, traditional Great British Pub, the Princess Louise is the place to go.

http://princesslouisepub.co.uk

The Princess Louise, Holborn

If you're hosting a foreign visitor, he's inevitably going to have 'typical pub' at the top of his viewing list.

I've long given up on the notion of 'typical', because as a pub enthusiast the plethora of ensuing ideas causes chaotic indecision in my mind.

The following point is common to all Sam Smith's houses, but it feels especially appropriate in tandem with the layout.

All kinds of complaints fly about regarding the beer, and that is admittedly a bit of a minus - but there's also an excellent Wetherspoons round the corner catering to your real ale thirst.

So perhaps not typical of today, but certainly classic and historic, and an absolute gem at that.

Princess Louise in Holborn, London Pub Review and Details

This pub has been refurbished in a style that is true to its Victorian (or older) ancestry and they have done a very good job!

This is the kind of pub that you would recommend to any tourist that wants to see a really traditional London pub and is now even featured in an app called Smith Finder that lists a whole load of these type of pubs around the capital.

http://bit.ly/TxB5ki Its a Sam Smith's pub so you know what you're getting in terms of beers, and they are always reasonably priced.

The food is never going to set the world on fire, but then this isn't a gastro pub!

Unfortunately there's no outdoor seating but then we are slap bang in the middle of London, so you can;t have everything!

Nearest tube / underground / station to The Princess Louise, Covent ...

Princess Louise, Holborn - Wikipedia

The Princess Louise is a public house situated on High Holborn, a street in central London.

[2] The building is protected by its Grade II* listing[3][4] and has what has been described as "a rich example of a Victorian public house interior", by William B Simpson and Sons; who contracted out the work.

[7] Author Peter Haydon included the Princess Louise in his book The Best Pubs in London and rated it No. 5 in the capital, saying it had "possibly the best preserved Victorian pub interior in London".

[8] The pub was operated by Regent Inns from 1990 until 1998, when the lease was taken over by Samuel Smith.

The Princess Louise is also notable for having been the venue for a number of influential folk clubs run by Ewan MacColl and others, which played an important part in the British folk revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The Princess Louise in London - Parallel

Choosing one pub to send you to is tricky – as you’ll soon notice, there isn’t a shortage.

It’s probably what you imagine all English pubs look like – they don’t.

11 Of The Best Sam Smith's Pubs In London | Londonist

Sam Smith's: the owner of this thrifty pub chain may be an eccentric flouting some very odd rules, but if you're looking for a comely, no thrills London boozer on a budget, these 11 should probably be on your list.

With its earthy wood panelling, man-in-a-box lager and puritanical rules (no swearing, no music, etc) The Champion is much like many other central London Sam Smith's pubs.

In the capital, Sam Smith's focuses most of its efforts on central London, so it's a pleasant surprise to find a member of the chain due south east, in Anerley — something that, we admit, helps get this pub on our list.

The Anerley Arms has the usual varnished, woody decor of any decent Sam Smith's boozer — in this case a curved, bar, studded all along the top with stained glass windows.

But this place has something that many of London's other Sam Smith's are short on — the feel of a real local.

Singing from the Floor review – 'a rich oral history of British folk clubs ...

The individuals who set the template for folk clubs in the mid-1950s – Ewan MacColl, AL Lloyd, John Hasted, Hull's Waterson family, and American visitors such as Alan Lomax and Peggy Seeger – were all dyed-in-the-wool reds who viewed folk gatherings as grassroots revolutionary potential, and a captive audience for a communitarian message.

The youth culture of the late 50s, when the folk club network began to form, was a model of parsimony, an austere cottage industry huddled in tiny rooms above pubs, in sports clubs and village halls – or in more eccentric spaces such as Les Cousins on Greek Street in Soho, or the Yellow Door, the south London home of Lionel Bart, Wally Whyton and Tommy Steele.

In Dylan's wake, musicians such as Bert Jansch, Renbourn, Roy Harper, Ralph McTell, Dave Cousins of the Strawbs, John Martyn and Sandy Denny took over the folk club circuit and drew in an audience with very different expectations of a night out.

Numerous musicians recall an era of insalubrious sleeping arrangements, low performance fees and pitiful turnouts, yet there are also reservations about the current resurgence of folk music and festival culture: "People nowadays want to be superstars rather than playing in clubs in rooms in the back of a pub," grumbles Nic Jones.

; Toni Arthur turning up to a prison gig in a miniskirt; Harvey Andrews's rendition of "Death Come Easy" leading to multiple injuries in a packed, collapsing pub room; the Young Tradition's Heather Wood telling an earnest German scholar at a folk conference "Look love, I'm sorry – it was about free beer and getting laid"; Davenport finding he'd been invited to one censorious folk club purely as an example of "how not to sing".

Princess Louise | Bars and pubs in Holborn, London

Trying to rendezvous with a drinking companion amid the nooks and crannies can prove a bit of a challenge, although it does mean you'll inevitably have the chance to explore properly.

(There's a simpler, larger room upstairs, but where's the fun in drinking there?)