First the barman didn’t know what Southern Comfort was, then he charged us £9.50 for a double shot and mixer. High-end aspirations and iffy results characterise the LST, part of a brand new pile of depressing glass boxes – sorry, ‘a mixed-use seven-acre urban quarter’ – called Goodman’s Fields.
Like a walk-in developer’s brochure, the LST really hammers the London heritage angle: tube memorabilia on the walls and Truman’s, Young’s, Fuller’s, Meantime and Camden Town on tap. But it’s suffering an identity crisis: is it an upmarket pub or a restaurant? Flocks of white-aproned staff take table orders and we were charged for service despite buying most of our drinks at the bar, but most of the dinnertime punters were in for after-work drinks. It’s hard to imagine the City boy crowd savouring a Dingley Dell pork faggot before their Friday-night lapdance.
The developers may as well have squeezed in a couple more ‘stunning’ residential units. Like most of New London, the LST is generic, disingenuous and expensive. You’ll have a more authentic London pub experience at the ’Spoons round the corner, and they won’t charge you a tenner for a double Southern Comfort. Whatever that is.