Unique Bars & Pubs London's Best Pubs West End Pubs Dover CastleDover Castle - Marylebone
If you're wandering the hinterlands north of Oxford Street, then take a detour down Weymouth Mews to the Dover Castle. 
Warm and cosy, it's a traditional pub in a town where few still survive.
It's been refurbished recently, which I discovered during the refurbishment process. I stood outside, looking through the darkened windows and re-reading the notice which said it was closed. Not sure what I was expecting. That if I read it enough times, they'd give in and open up for me? I'm just trying to get across that I was disappointed that I had to go elsewhere. The Dover Castle is down a cobbled mews and as such, is not a place you wander past.
Food and beer are good rather than exceptional, but it's the whole package which will have you returning. The Dover Castle is an ideal location if you want to meet some friends in town and catch up with a chat and a few leisurely drinks. It rarely gets crowded and there's no music or pretty-young-things stopping off here, before launching themselves on the West End.
It's another one of those bolt-holes and if you're visiting London from further afield and want to experience a pub of the more traditional kind - sidle in.
This area is re-billing itself as 'Marylebone Village' (it's on the border of Fitzrovia) - and has lots of chi-chi outlets now. Decades ago it was empty and unloved, so by all means, head West afterwards to Marylebone High Street and observe an area undergoing regeneration.
If you want to eat - food is served in the Dover Castle from midday to 8.30pm. The beers are well kept and well priced - they're Sam Smiths. Alpine Lager is still the cheapest night out in town, but depend on that hangover. Also expect the hear some banter and recognised faces in here. An antidote to the vast, impersonal theme pub experience, in the West End beyond.
"Ta Landlord!... and have one yourself."
Weymouth Mews, West End, London, W1G 7EH.
Regent's Park, Great Portland Street or Oxford Circus.
Call: 020 7580 4412
