The Globe, London Bridge, London

Average stars of 3 so I thought I’d pop inn. Unpretencious little community boozer, friendly, barmaid eager to let you sample the beer before choosing. It might be average but I was pleased to have called in for a lunchtime pint. having settled for the Bombardier at just over £3 a pint not bad for the iconic real beer loaded with distinct English brilliance. It’s the epitome of impeccable taste and great character. The rich, full-bodied nectar is a lingering reward – English, ever reliable and damned tasty! (Wells and Youngs)

Considering this pub is smack bang in the middle of tourist happiness, it should be miles better than it is. But honestly, it's kind of rubbish. This is what you can expect from this pub:

Average ale
Average service
Average experience

If you're lucky, somewhere to sit, to continue your average experience even further, or you can stand and have an average pint at the bar. Sometimes you can stand outside in the sun, but then the whole area is so busy that that's not very fun at all. It's mostly average.

You'd have to be running very short of options to continue drinking in here. We were, and we still only stayed for one.

A nice little pub, a stone’s throw away from Borough Market and other hotspots in the London Bridge area. It has a quiet and decadent atmosphere and as mentioned previously, it can be seen in Bridget Jones’ Diary. It’s never too busy and is a nice friendly place to have a beer after a shop around the market.

Small, traditional and friendly pub with a personal touch to it, where the barmaid still sometimes calls you “my darling”.
Good enough choice of everything.
It’s almost unchanged from the 70ies when I used it first.
Nicely relaxing, especially when most of the pubs around are brimful with people.

A nice place to hang out after work. I’d by no means set aside an evening and travel over to The Globe from the other side of England BUT this is one of those places where you can really find a bit of comfort and end up staying for a good few hours. It’s situated in the heart and soul of London and literally a stones flick (not even a throw) from Borough Market. Only downside is that the bar gets a bit busy and can at times be up to 2 or 3 people deep.

Not my sort of thing but I read the book in a moment of bordom ..on a train..and sadly enjoyed the movie.
Bridget’s flat is above the Globe Pub - Bridget Jones’s Diary(2001)

Bridget’s London home was in Holland Park, and her locals included The Pharmacy (now gone); Coffee Republic on Portobello Road (outside which Hugh Grant bumps into Julia Roberts in Notting Hill); 192; and Cafe Rouge.

For the movie, however, she’s been relocated south of the River Thames to Borough, an area seen in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Howards End and Entrapment. Bridget’s (Renee Zellweger) flat is above The Globe, Bedale Street at Green Dragon Court (a location for The French Lieutenant’s Woman).
Across Bedale Street you can see the shops which were transformed into the cab office, the newsagent and, of course, the fictitious Greek restaurant where caddish Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and D’Arcyish Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) slug it out during a birthday party. Bridget plods glumly through Borough Market after discovering Cleaver with “Lara, from the New York office”
The très smart flat of Daniel Cleaver is Clink Wharf Apartments, Clink Street, one of the smart warehouse redevelopments only a minute or two away from Bridget’s place.

The Globe is a great pub in a great location - near Borough Market….and also, Bridget Jones’s singleton flat is above the pub in the

2001 movie 'Bridget Jones’s Diary’(also seen in a Michael Caine thriller)

Call me crazy but I like old man pubs. I like 'em dark, a bit dirty, sticky to the touch. I like 'em when they’ve stuck to doing what they do, without becoming a gastro-this or a design that.

So with some time to kill between a great lunch and a train from London Bridge Station, I thought there could be nothing nicer than hanging out at The Globe in Borough Market with my mac and GPRS dongle (no wifi here I imagine).

On the inside The Globe is tatty and grim with the obligatory loners sitting at their tables-for-one with a cheap pint, staring off into space as if contemplating “where it all went wrong”.

Where it all went wrong for me apparently was the moment I plugged my gadget into their precious wall without asking for permission. Half an hour in I was approached by the bizarre, old, lady-creature behind the bar, she said:

“I see you’re using our electricity” - no flies on her then.
“Uhhhh, yes, is that a problem?” I asked.
“This is not an internet cafe” she pointed out, not even slightly joking.

A few sentences later and I was packing my stuff and leaving. I called a couple of people to check that it was indeed the year 2008. They assured me it was. I looked around for a hidden camera in case I was being filmed for a TV show and there were none.

Unbelievable. There were only three people in the pub, including me. The other two were doing the staring thing.
Would it do any harm to allow me to use their electricity? I think not.

Never again Globe hole. Never again.

Where are all the actors? Oh…not that Globe in Southwark…the pub one…Situated near Borough market & Southwark Cathedral - the Globe is less touristy than you might suspect. Half crouching under the railway bridge, the globe looks pretty tired from the outside, and that’s repeated inside - where it’s a very traditional English pub and there are a collection of random antiques (including numerous globes of course) up in the open wooden rafters.

The service is pretty speedy and the prices are good value for London, especially in the area. For smokers - its got plenty of outside space which is under the cover of the railway bridge, although if its really raining you’re going to get dripped on.

For reasons of needing a loo break whilst doing the rounds in Borough Market my bladder decided to stop off at The Globe, but I’m afraid there is little there that would entice me to stay beyond one drink. There’s the usual mediocre selection of beers you can expect from a pub chain. Toilets could do with a refurb.. not pleasant. As for the ‘traditional’ pub appearance it’s all faked to rake in the tourist pounds. Only go if your bladder is being temperamental :)

The Globe is more of a drinking pub than a tourist pub. Its close to the Borough Market and the South Bank and there’s usually loads of tourists around the area, but this pub gets more of the local traffic, varying from residents to city suits from the nearby offices. The shape is like a half circle with the bar in the middle and its a place to meet for a swift one away from the madness or trendiness of some of the other pubs in the area.

This is a fairly standard traditional style pub is within spitting distance of Borough Market and unsurprisingly, given its proximity to london bridge and the city, is largely populated by shirt and tie types at the bar. Lighting is low and there are some cool looking themed antiquities in the rafters. I was chuffed to get change back from £3 for my pint'o'guiness too. A downside were the poorly placed radiators which rendered some otherwise decent propping spots uninhabitable. For a semi-circular shaped bar named after a three dimensional polygon, the place needs to develop a bit of dimension and charisma before it can be descibed as a really great pub.