The Hand & Shears

Traditional British pub with the classic interior decorations. No loud music, in fact, I think they had no music all together, and you can just spend time with your friends talking vs. yelling over the Pandora station :)
Some wine, good beer selection, hard liquor. This place is perfect.

Loved it. It’s nice & quiet on a Wednesday night, tucked away not very far from Barbican centre.
The pub was established in 1532 and you can feel the centuries oozing from its wooden bar and polished floors. The wine (Cabernet Savignon) was lovely, the service was nice & friendly — we stayed until after the last call and didn’t quite want to leave.

Now, this is what I call a proper pub! What a relief to come across this gem after the rather disappointing start at the Butchers Hook around the corner. A walk down a dark alley takes you to this little corner pub with separate entrances for public and saloon bars — the décor doesn’t seem to have changed much since the old days.
The choice of beer was impressive — I could tell by the happy faces of my mainly male group of connoisseurs. In pubs like this I always wish I was more fond of ale. But I like my wine, and the Sauvignon Blanc I was served was another pleasant surprise — not the generic white wine for the lady type!

Few words needed. Brilliant, friendly, welcoming ‘pub on the corner’. Tony the landlord soon became a firm friend, I’ve adopted the resident dogs, I pop in to borrow glassware, I tried to buy the place! And I’m virtually tee total. So I’m a terrible customer, revenue wise, but they don’t seem to hold that against me. I took the ‘empty nester’, big step of moving lock stock and barrel to a new city and a new life, and the friendliness of this historic, atmospheric, pub on the corner has helped me realise there is a real community here in the heart of this busy City, and has helped me settle in brilliantly. Thanks Hand and Shears.

This is a great little pub, tucked away so that it doesn’t attract any tourists or many city workers. It’s a friendly place and quite the traditional London pub. It has an upstairs room which is quieter still. Drink the Timothy Tailor Landlord.

Out of adversity comes opportunity.
For the fourth day on the trot the trains are broken. This time though, really broken. I walked past this place on a lunchtime stroll today and, rather than do my usual trick if drowning my commute sorrows near Paddington, walked back here.
Result.
It’s Thursday night, but this place is sufficiently tucked away not to be rammed to the gunnels. A half hour walk from the square mile means that I’m not surrounded by braying suits and, to top it all, I took a short cut through the muggers paradise that is the Barbican estate.
Small, quaint, friendly, reasonably priced, pork pies on the bar and a superb selection of libations. This place is a wonderful find. There’s a decent food menu too, and the punters seem like a good crowd.
Definitely worth a drop in.

Excellent traditional city boozer, nicely tucked away in atmospheric street