Tuesday afternoon is not a time that is generally associated with pub crawls, but that is exactly what we did one grey afternoon in February on a day off of work. After fiddling around to get the car dropped off at the garage, we caught the train to London and made our way to Bank, where we had worked out that just after lunch we could get a nice seat in a pub minus all the braying twats that the City of London is famed for.

First pub on the list was the Golden Fleece at Bank which was nice and quiet, and allowed us the opportunity to have a nice lunch whilst sampling a good array of beers - Hackney Best, Twickenham Winter Cheer, St Austell Proper Job, Fleece Ale, Truman Blindside. The pub was set up in quite a traditional way, with fairly basic fittings and a high ceiling and plenty of room for the great suited brigade to mill around in during busier times. Our table was by the window and afforded good views of passing people.

A moderate walk followed to the much more cramped Centre Page at Mansion House, where there were also not that many tables, because the pub was so small and height restricted. The beer wasn't bad though, with Thwaites Bomber, Spitfire and Seafarers available. For some reason we didn't feel that we fitted in that well here so pressed on via some alleyways to three pubs in quick succession.

The first of these was Shaw's Booksellers, a Fuller's establishment serving London Pride and Bengal Lancer. Huge windows and light interior with pine tables, and very few books that we could see, and not that bad. Just up the road was probably the best pub up to that point, the extremely traditional Cockpit, with plush but well-worn fixtures and fittings and indeed space for a small gallery. They had good beer available in the shape of Timothy Taylor Landlord, Young's Bitter, Pedigree, Old Speckled Hen and Adnam's Southwold. Just around the corner is a rather interesting pub, the Rising Sun, which seemed quite lively and almost theatre like inside. We sat by the window because things were beginning to fill up by now, and this afforded good views into the dark, narrow street outside. Beer was quite refreshingly different from many other places - Bateman's chocolate Biscuit, Wherry and Doom Bar.

With time marching on we felt that we should try a Sam Smith's pub, the Crown and Sugarloaf, and we actually ended up having two in there, though one of them was a highly expensive bottle of fruit beer. This is a cosy little pub quite typical of Sam Smith's, with a triangular floor plan, traditional wooden interior and leaded windows. Easy to settle into, if you go for the cheaper products.

Final pub of the day where we ended up having quite a few was the St Brides Tavern at Blackfriars. This is another cosy, but also smarter and more modern pub tucked down a backstreet. Their ale was very good, Hogsback TEA, Greene King IPA and Lancaster Lemon Grass, and we couldn't figure out a suitable next venue, so it was the ideal place to rest a while.