Lyceum Tavern

Pubgoers love Samuel Smith’s pubs, as they are one of the few places where you can get two pints of beer for a fiver, as long as you’re happy to stick to their own-brand brews. You won’t find Stella, Fosters or Red Stripe here, but you will find Alpine Lager, wheat beers, Sam Smith’s ciders and bottled organic lager – organic being a key word as the brewery prides itself on doing without any artificial preservatives, colourings and sweeteners, while vegan beer-lovers will be happy to know everything is 100% vegetarian. In fact, so fair is their trade philosophy that the bedevilled Coca-Cola is unwelcome here, instead you will find the amusingly titled Scintilla Cola. There’s cheap food too, but don’t expect anything more exciting than pie and mash.

The Lyceum’s name pays homage to nearby Theatreland, although it’s more likely to be populated by students and tourists (it is on the Strand, and right by the LSE and King’s College after all) than theatregoers or thesps. Décor over the two floors is unfussy and trad, with carpeted floors with old cigarette burns, battered dark wooded furniture and old fashioned fittings like wood panelling and mirrors, all typical features of Sam Smith’s London pubs, which now roughly number 35; wherever you are in zone 1, you can never be more than a 15 minute walk away from one of these recession-busting drinking holes.