Euston is a scummy area, but there is some semblance of culture in this neighbourhood in the form of the twin gatehouses in front of the station that we had driven past on numerous occasions, and had realised that alcoholic drinks could be purchased there. In actual fact, different drinks can be purchased in each one, so we decided to make a stop at the Cider Tap. Even though I am not a great fan of cider, this seemed like the more civilised of the two establishments. The buildings are quite unique, with no real windows, a small bar and four or five downstairs tables. There are narrow spiral stairs up to a kind of attic room containing a few more tables and a basic toilet. Cider selection was good and they had over 16 interesting ones on although of course I did not write this sort of nonsense down - see the picture instead. The Euston Tap is not that far away at all and is the shabbier of the two. Very much similar in design, though the bar is at a different angle. All their beer was keg or bottle so not recorded, but there were a great variety of them available.

The Hammersmith and City line stops at Euston Square and goes to Hammersmith of all places, so we decided to take that to Hammersmith which was to be our main drinking destination. Although QPR had just finished playing, it was still empty and we eased into Hammersmith, by this time bladders full. This meant that the first pub in line was to be visited which turned out to be the very average Old City Arms. The main purpose of the visit was the toilets, but we did have a swift half and it must have been so unmemorable that I forgot to record it. In any case, a reasonable pub, with a hint of the Irish about it. Now that we had settled again, it was time to go to the actual intended destination, the splendid Dove, which is right on the river. We actually managed to get a riverside seat, but could quite easily have also sat inside if we had desired to. The interior is very traditional and there is the World's smallest public bar, a narrow room with three stools at the front. I didn't write down the beer but it was a good assortment of Fuller's products.

In the end we stayed for two but eventually managed to make our way back towards Hammersmith Bridge and the first port of call was the Rutland Arms. This was on the riverside and consequently busy, especially outside, on such a nice day. The pub itself is not particularly special, being a rather large Taylor Walker corner sited boozer with a few ales of moderate interest. One note of distinction was the incredibly inept barman who got our order all wrong. The Blue Anchor is a few doors down and was an altogether more pleasing place to drink. Noteworthy about this pub was that it features in the closing credits of Minder. Although it looks small from the outside, it is actually quite large and nicely traditional with a good, solid 2 or 3 proper beers available. Still very busy though, and so we didn't linger for too long.