On Tuesday night this week, rather by accident, I did something I’ve never done before – I took part in a singalong around the old Joanna.

I arrived at the Coach & Horses, Greek Street just as the pianist was starting. She rattled off a few well known tunes – My Old Man, Roll out the Barrel etc but at 7.30pm most people in the pub ignored her.

Photo courtesy of https://twitter.com/London_Nut

Only an hour later it was a different story.  Although it turned into a bit of a karaoke session at one point – with groups of work colleagues singing along to tunes from the Jungle Book and Oliver (words provided) – after a short break she was back on the traditional songs.  Soon loads of people were singing along (including me); not needing words to the famous Londony songs. I can’t sing that well so really hope she was attracted to our table by the much better voices of @London_nut and his girlfriend A.

We were amazed to discover that Lili Davies – or to give her her stage name, Magic Betty, was from Romania!  She said she had learned all the songs from scratch. I must admit I initially felt a bit cheated. I wanted her to be London born and bred.  However she is very entertaining and I will definitely return.

The Coach and Horses has singalongs around the piano every Tuesday and Saturday at 7.30pm. I expect Saturday evenings will be a different crowd entirely. There are a number of different performers; Magic Betty will next be performing there on Saturday 22nd March.

There are lots of other good reasons to visit the pub. They only serve vegetarian food, upstairs there is a “secret” tea room and they sell at least 5 varieties of pickled egg! (I have to confess I have never eaten a pickled egg – maybe I should try one here.)  Any recommendations for a particular flavour?

The pub has got a fascinating history too and if you want to discover that why not book on my Soho Sunday Pub Themed Stroll – a new public date coming very soon.