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location:
address:
41 Farm Street, W1J 5RP
phone:
0871 984 2667*
* calls cost 10p/minute, click here for more about 0871 numbers.
nearest stations:
Green Park 
(550m) - zone 1
Bond Street
(560m) - zone 1
Hyde Park Corner
(750m) - zone 1
Marble Arch
(810m) - zone 1
Oxford Circus
(840m) - zone 1
how to find it:
Green Park: leave the station and walk down Piccadilly on the right hand side (opposite side to Green Park) towards Hyde Park. Take the third right up Half Moon Street, left up Curzon Street, then right up Queen Street. When you get to the next street (Charles Street) you'll see Chesterfield Hill across the road, more or less in front of you. Walk up Chesterfield Hill to the pub. Bond Street: head down Davies Street to Berkeley Square. Take the first right from the square into Hill Street, walk along Hill Street until you get to Chesterfield Hill. Turn right up Chesterfield Hill and You'll see the pub up the hill in front of you.
click for directions to Punch Bowl from wherever you areclick here for a larger map
nearby attraction(s):
The Royal Academy (660m)
Wallace Collection (980m)
The Punch Bowl has been a long-standing favourite of ours, so we were a little dismayed by the celebrity hoo-haa surrounding the pub's ownership in recent months and even more alarmed to hear the pub was to be refurbished by the new owners. It turned out we needn't have worried - it's a pretty sympathetic revamp and many regulars won't notice any difference. If anything, it looks a little darker and a little more distressed, which actually suits the place - the previous version was rather too manufactured looking with its modern old-style furniture and unsympathetic lighting. We guess it was too much to expect the old wooden partition between the public and saloon bars to be reinstated, but the overall effect of the work is pretty much in keeping with this old building. The beers are much the same too, with Speccy, Bombardier and Courage Best still on the hand pumps. Prices are somewhat elevated, especially the wines, but it's not as if the locals around here can't afford it. The live music - a banjo and guitar duo playing old (cliché) Irish numbers on the night we were in - is probably an affectation too far, in our opinion, but it doesn't spoil the mood. Now the Red Lion round the corner is closed, expect the place to be pretty crowded towards the end of the week.
29/08/2008
outdoor seating
live music
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