The Walrus & The Carpenter has been re-opened for a week now, I visited on Wednesday 6th December 2006 to enjoy the changes from a Fullers to a Nicholsons. Externally the façade is now black and the lettering slightly changed.  The layout of the main bar has also changed, we no longer have the Knights and Kings but a single bar, this can make things rather tight when trying to move around, perhaps the bar could have taken a little more of the pressure by being slimmer, but never mind.  Upstairs in the Lewis Carroll dining area there is a very small bar, but this, certainly during a lunchtime, is dedicated to seated clientele enjoying dinning rather than standing and drinking.  There is only one entrance to the downstairs cellar champagne bar, that's on the right of the pub.   Although billed as a champagne bar this seems rather dull, the decor is very much in keeping with the main bar upstairs and when I visited there was little evidence of champagne, I get the feeling the name will be ignored and this will simply be 'the cellar bar'.

Good news for real ale enthusiasts, there is a special board showing which guest ales are currently on offer and which are to come over the coming weeks, there is no doubt that Nicholsons know how to treat real ale, when I visited there was Adams, London Pride and Bombardier all of excellent quality.

The name The Walrus & The Carpenter is taken from a poem written by Lewis Carroll first published in 1871 and appears in 'Through the looking glass', and according to the information given in the pub - it stands at the bottom of Lovat Lane, which has only been called Lovat Lane since 1939, previous to that it was called Love Lane, a popular street for ladies of the night, sadly this appears to be no longer the case.