As Marylebone grows ever more gentrified with each passing year, this backstreet local seems ever more out of place in its surroundings. No bad thing, of course. A paint job tidied up the room a few years ago, but the Golden Eagle remains what it’s been for years: an unpretentious, comfortable-as-old-slippers little boozer (and we mean little; seating’s limited to a couple of tables and a string of bar stools along the front window), not hugely charismatic but pleasingly untouched by corporate hands and always serving two or three well-kept ales.
Try to make it for one of the thrice-weekly piano singalongs (‘On the Street Where You Live’, ‘Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye’, and so on), led by Tony ‘Fingers’ Pearson, which make a jolly counterpoint to the barman’s relentlessly weary demeanour. An absolute peach.