The Old Crown, 33 New Oxford St WC2

The Old Crown is a beautifully decorated old pub, handy for the British Museum and all the computery shops on the Tottenham Court Road and New Oxford Street. What was once obviously your standard dingy, fringes-of-West-End hole has been

tarted up with lovely new-agey slub greens and creams, baskets of plants in the windows and little jars of lilies on the tables. That's what it looks like from the outside. The drawback is that it serves as a watering hole for all the hardware salesmen from the aforementioned shops, who hog the bar shouting about their female colleagues' physical appearance and showing each other their mobile phones. Shame.

The Old Crown, 33 New Oxford St WC2

(071-836 9121)

Tomorrow: The Piccadilly, Great Windmill St W1

(Photograph omitted)