The Old Star has three floors - an upstairs function room, a split-level ground floor with bar and eating areas, and a basement Vaults Bar full of nooks and crannies. There is plenty of London Underground memorabilia - appropriately so, LUL HQ being across the road, above St James's Park tube and next to that rather austere, unforgiving and dominating glory of the 20th century, the former Home Office. Designed by Fitzroy Robinson & Partners with Sir Basil Spence this is now a Euro-style Ministry of Justice (and apparently known by inmates as the Lubyanka, by others as 'that irredeemable horror', 'hulking', or simply 'Brutalist') - retreating to the Old Star is one of the options. Nicknamed at one stage "The Cab House" because it was a well-known watering-hole for hansom cab drivers. The pub swingsign shows the British Army 1914-15 Star; about 2.4 million are thought to have been issued. See pub website for current deals.