there was a bad time in the 1960s, when this article was published, but the pubs that are managing to survive nowadays (non-survival for a variety of reasons - covid, taxation to name two) are much better than suggested.
*I found a pub called the Ranelagh, but it’s not in Pimlico, so I assume it’s a different one. It was the one he described as “really terrible,” so no big loss, I suppose.
Addendum: the other interesting thing I noticed was the ones he derided as having been “modernized” in the 1960s were also newly renovated today, with airy, Scandinavian, 2020s aesthetics. Presumably because unlike the traditional pubs, the 60s style became dated pretty quickly.