That article is terrible though - I hate people who complain about things like "beer tasting nice" (ironically or not - probably irony shouldn't have a place in this lament for what is basically some kind of authenticity).
Dammit, you beat me to it. I was also about to slag it off based primarily on that line, but secondarily on many others. As if there's anything inherently great about shit, ugly, depressing pubs that sell nothing but flat Foster's and Walker's cheese & onion.
To be honest he comes across as a try-hard twat who desperately wants to broadcast his unimpeachable edginess by fetishizing things that are either of dubious worth if not simply a bit shit. The whole general feeling that London was a better place when it was more violent. Because, you know, violence, hurrah!
Not to mention that he seems like just the sort of gobby twerp who'd get his head kicked in when there was more head-kicking-in going on. Maybe he'd like that though, I dunno.