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#1 2016-04-23 05:35:42
- Beestonplace
- Member
- Posts: 1926
Question re London pub/caff
For therapeutic reasons, I am looking for a special place. A pub or cafe, in a sleepy/non-descript/even shabby West London suburb. 100% hipster-free and non-ironic. Ideally a place without piped music. Non-intentional retro interior. Where I can nurse a lukewarm pint of stout. Nothing re-done, no gastropub. I would not mind seeing the occasional hi-viz coat. Or an old chap with prescription eyeglasses and a box OTR tweed jacket from the 1980ies.
In my youth, Pimlico was like that, and Westminster in general (on weekends). Or Hanwells? Wandsworth?
Do you understand what I am looking for?
Last edited by Beestonplace (2016-04-23 05:40:51)
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#2 2016-04-23 11:19:49
- colin
- Bright Light
- Posts: 1318
Re: Question re London pub/caff
Never been inside but how about the Spreadeagle, Wandsworth?
#3 2016-04-23 11:40:51
- Beestonplace
- Member
- Posts: 1926
Re: Question re London pub/caff
Whereabouts is it? Near the Tonsleys?
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#4 2016-04-23 12:40:23
- colin
- Bright Light
- Posts: 1318
Re: Question re London pub/caff
East hill (apologies in advance if its no good)
#5 2016-04-23 12:54:16
- woofboxer
- Devil's Ivy Advocate
- From: The Lost County of Middlesex
- Posts: 7959
Re: Question re London pub/caff
Kingstonian is your man for this info.
The Pineapple in Lambeth North near the tube station of the same name is a no frills drinker with a decent beer selection.
There are numerous pleasant pubs along the river between Hammersmith and Kew Bridge if you don't mind going that far out.
'I'm not that keen on the Average Look .......ever'.
John Simons
Achievements: banned from the Ivy Style FB Group
#7 2016-04-23 13:20:45
- Beestonplace
- Member
- Posts: 1926
Re: Question re London pub/caff
No no no no
More like a suburbian pub on a suburbian "high street" in row of shops, or even in a residential area, facing redbrick 1930ies semis. No river view, but no main traffic lane view either.
Like on Warwick Way/Pimlico. But in an even quieter part of the town, I am thinking of Acton or similar. Must be West (I have this geographical OCD and feel unwell East or North).
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#8 2016-04-23 13:21:48
- Beestonplace
- Member
- Posts: 1926
Re: Question re London pub/caff
Ideally not a "corner pub" and not a detached building. Like the Wilton Arms in Kinnerton Street, SW1.
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#10 2016-04-23 13:32:43
- Bop
- Member
- Posts: 7661
Re: Question re London pub/caff
What you need is the Hurricane Rooms in East Acton
#11 2016-04-23 14:18:54
- Beestonplace
- Member
- Posts: 1926
Re: Question re London pub/caff
Oh no - "we are a large pub" they say, and snooker tables.
Maybe a cafe with some sad cooked breakfast (served all day) would be better
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#12 2016-04-23 14:21:21
- Beestonplace
- Member
- Posts: 1926
Re: Question re London pub/caff
No booming voices, piped music, snooker/darts.
A small pub, not with high ratings on any internet forums, no function room, not known for "fine interpretations of traditional British pub fare" etc.
A forgotten place.
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#13 2016-04-24 04:05:20
- Kingston1an
- Member
- Posts: 4120
Re: Question re London pub/caff
"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."
#15 2016-04-24 05:25:08
- woofboxer
- Devil's Ivy Advocate
- From: The Lost County of Middlesex
- Posts: 7959
Re: Question re London pub/caff
The Queens Head in Tryon St, just off the Kings Road?
'I'm not that keen on the Average Look .......ever'.
John Simons
Achievements: banned from the Ivy Style FB Group
#16 2016-04-24 11:03:54
- Beestonplace
- Member
- Posts: 1926
Re: Question re London pub/caff
"The Queens Head was once one of London's key gay drinking destinations"
Oh no. RuPaul lookalikes?
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#17 2016-04-24 13:32:56
- woofboxer
- Devil's Ivy Advocate
- From: The Lost County of Middlesex
- Posts: 7959
Re: Question re London pub/caff
'I'm not that keen on the Average Look .......ever'.
John Simons
Achievements: banned from the Ivy Style FB Group
#18 2016-04-25 03:50:14
- Kingston1an
- Member
- Posts: 4120
Re: Question re London pub/caff
Royal Horseguardsman, Brentford.
One bar pub though, so difficult to hide.
Brentford would be a good, hipster-free, well-pubbed area. Famous fictional drinkers Pooley and Omally drank there in the Brentford Trilogy by Robert Rankin. Their pub - the Flying Swan - (was the old Bricklayers Arms) in the books was turned into flats. The son of a chap on my old darts team now has a flat there.
Darts and pool are often part of the package though. If you could ignore them you would have more choice. Brewery Tap Brentford (shabbier part of Brentford)has pool table in a separate room.
Griffin in Brentford is an old school pub.
"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."
#19 2016-04-25 03:55:54
- Kingston1an
- Member
- Posts: 4120
Re: Question re London pub/caff
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brentford_Trilogy
The Brentford Trilogy is a series of nine novels by writer Robert Rankin. They humorously chronicle the lives of a couple of drunken middle-aged layabouts, Jim Pooley and John Omally, who confront the forces of darkness in the environs of West London, usually with the assistance of large quantities of beer from their favourite public house, The Flying Swan.
"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."
#20 2016-04-25 06:10:32
- Kingston1an
- Member
- Posts: 4120
Re: Question re London pub/caff
If you want a hipster-free caff with no booze The River Cafe opposite Putney Bridge Tube. You will always get a seat. Several generations of an Italian family work there. Main man has lost some of his fingers.
Good for a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich.
http://www.classiccafes.co.uk/rivercafespecial.htm
"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."
#23 2018-07-09 15:07:15
- mhalat
- Member
- Posts: 381
Re: Question re London pub/caff
I recommend the Bridge Cafe @ 138 West End Lane, West Hampstead. Little greasy spoon I ate a lot at as a student - hi viz vests, greasy brekki, very good tea, horrendous coffee. 5 min walk from the Tube or Overground.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=bridge+cafe+west+end+lane&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA778CA778&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-77bu9JLcAhVm6YMKHR-MDlAQ_AUICygC&biw=1920&bih=898#imgrc=KD4oR6FF_y1fEM:
The Railway pub, nearby, used to be musty and forgotten enough to suit your needs, though they seem to have renovated recently, sad.
Bonus - the Czechoslovak Bar nearby, #72 West End Lane I think, is suitably musty and was a club for exiled dissidents way back when. Very formal dining room, usually empty, delicious beer, and has a couple faded portraits of Vaclav Havel to boot.....
Last edited by mhalat (2018-07-10 10:13:05)
#24 2018-08-18 00:07:54
- Beestonplace
- Member
- Posts: 1926
Re: Question re London pub/caff
Thanks for the Czechoslovak Bar !!!
"My" places are The Nags Head and the Wilton Arms in Kinnerton Street, I don't know how I could have forgotten them.
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