A rare Friday London pub crawl was arranged, taking advantage of the fact that we Avril, Richard and I all had the Friday afternoon off. In hindsight we were all quite tired from the week and perhaps should have delayed until Saturday, but I digress, and if nothing else we had the opportunity to do some pubs not open at the weekend.

One such establishment is the Bleeding Heart Tavern at Farringdon which is ostensibly a pub but being a French restaurant, really, is embedded a considerable way up its own arse. For example, although there are Adnam's ales available, they have to be served to your table by some sort of garçon rather than ordered at the bar.

Fullers is in charge of the next pub which was the Olde Mitre situated down an alleyway in Hatton Garden. It is extremely quaint and traditional with two main areas and a couple of extra nooks and crannies here and there. We decided to sit in the back bar which has a more odd set up, a little like a lounge in an old folks' home. As is to be expected the beer was very good and we stayed for multiple rounds because products from brewers other than Fullers were available. Also of note were the excellent bar snacks and the gentlemen's toilets which are outside and pleasingly unergonomic in design. The Fullers website allows you to have a nice look around the place (apart from the gents').

The Castle had a bit of a strange atmosphere about it, almost like the last day of term, perhaps because at the time of writing it is closed and being turned into an hotel, or so the internet says. This is a shame because it was a solid enough, if basic, corner pub with a good selection of ales dispensed from a single bar in one room. Probably the best selection of the day.

A most obscure place to drink was the 113 Restaurant and Bar inside the Law Society on Chancery Lane. This was a pain in the backside to find but proved to be a most excellent venue, being quiet, clean and actually pretty reasonably priced. It is based inside the rather grand premises of the Law Society although the bar itself is very modern. There is also a majestic and spacious downstairs toilet, complete with shower cubicle. We had a very restful and tasty pint of lager in the end at a good price - their bitter selection is not good at all. And they don't open at the weekend or late in the evening. For those of you that like a quiet, obscure college bar, this is the place for you.

For reasons that are unclear to me there are several watering holes all within pissing distance of each other at Temple. One such establishment is the Cheshire Cheese which is not the same as the Sam Smith's pub nearby, or the one at Fenchurch Street. This one is a small, traditional boozer with four or five decent ales on hand pull and a relaxed atmosphere devoid of the twattery that can happen on Friday afternoons in the city. We were able to stand outside and enjoy our beers, which were well kept and a little different to the normal stuff.

It will come as no surprise that the sophisticatedly named Devereux has a rather scruffy interior and is therefore a Taylor Walker establishment. To be fair it's not that bad inside, with a very large floor space, a scattering of furniture and a few decent beers. Apparently there is an interesting downstairs room which we did not bother to visit. Solid enough and pleasingly not that busy.

Final pub of the day was the Temple Brew, just around the corner. This one was rather busy with more trendy legal hipster types. In a rather formulaic way it is set in a basement and has a microbrewery on site that one has to pass on the way down the stairs to the main area. It also has that slightly quirky/distressed looking furniture and fittings and lashings and lashings of trendy beers lie Camden Hells etc. It does however have around 8 proper hand pull beers on plus a dozen craft offerings, and they did a very nice burger. I don't really have any complaints, especially as it is open at the weekend too.