BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Hogshead
FN:Hogshead
TEL;WORK;VOICE:020 7251 3813
ADR;WORK:;;Cowcross Place, Cowcross Street;EC1M 6DR
URL:
NOTE:It's a policy of the Random Pub Finder to not review chain pubs, because they're generally crap. But since I don't get out much, I don't have the chance to be too choosy about the pubs I review. On top of that, it helps to understand the true awfulness of these places to make more of an effort to avoid them in future. It was somebody's leaving do at work so I thought I had better attend. Upon entering I felt immediately at home. Hogshead used to go for a traditionalish kind of look but they've obviously decided to change and adopt the All Bar One pine everywhere style, so I felt like I'd been here before. So to the bar where I was pleasantly surprised to find the selection of beer to be quite wide. There were a few beers I'd never heard of, so well done there. After purchasing beer we hit our first problem, where are the seats? There clearly aren't enough and the ones that appear to be free are all reserved. There is some seating outside, but these are all taken by people trying to avoid the second problem with this pub, the VERY LOUD music with VERY BIG TV screens showing the accompanying videos. And for total sensory overload, we also have Sky Sports in the corner on another massive screen. So conversation is somewhat limited and I spend most of my time watching the screens. Much as I love 'Fools Gold', I don't need to come to a pub to watch the cheap and cheerful accompanying video. I can do this from the comfort of my own home by watching some dodgy FreeView channel. So with nothing else to do, I drink 3 pints in very quick succession and make my unsteady way home. Then of course I realise, this is what these chain pubs are aiming to do, get people drinking as much as possible in the shortest amount of time, so they can get the best return on their investment. Conversation doesn't make any money for these people. This is the McDonalds of the pub world and the only way to stop it is to starve it of its oxygen, cash. Lets face it, the EC1 area is not short of decent pubs, just look round the rest of the site and visit one of them instead.    
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