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The Campaign for Real Ale branch for the boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea and City of Westminster.

January 2025 news

Here's an update on the latest news and information from West London branch of CAMRA.

Branch events

Why not join us on one of our branch socials or meetings? We'd love to see you! Here is a list of our events:

  • January
    • Wed 22 (7/7.30pm) branch meeting: Bear (downstairs), 27 Spring St, W2 1JA
    • Tue 28 (2pm) Social, meet Scarsdale Tavern, 23a Edwardes Sq, W8 6HE
  • February
    • Wed 5 (2pm) social - Barley Mow, 8 Dorset Street, W1U 6QW
    • Thu 6 to Sat 8 (from noon) SPBW Beer from the Wood mini-festival – Admiralty, 66 Trafalgar Square, WC2N 5DS (this event is organized by SPBW, rather than CAMRA - for information see their website spbw.beer).
    • Mon 17 (7/7.30pm) branch meeting – Distillers (upstairs), 64 Fulham Palace Rd, W6 9PH
    • Tue 25 (7pm) social - Cask Pub and Kitchen, 6 Charlwood Street, SW1V 2EE
  • March
    • Wed 5 (2pm) social - Latymers, 157 Hammersmith Rd, W6 8BS
    • Tues 18 (2pm) social, Crown and Anchor, 137 Drummond St, NW1 2HL

 

Regional CAMRA news and events
Pub and brewery news

  • NW8, DUKE OF YORK (Stonegate/Old Spot Pub Co), 2 St Ann's Terrace, NW8 6PJ. Now part of the small London Frontier Pubs chain.

  • NW8, LORD HIGH ADMIRAL (Westminster City Council/Stonegate), 95 Church Street, NW8 8EY. Closed in September. Planning granted in 2023 to demolish as part of the Church Street redevelopment.

  • SW1, TIGER TIGER (A3D2), 29 Haymarket, SW1Y 4SP. Closed, to become hotel.

  • SW1, WHITE FERRY HOUSE (Stonegate/PubLove), 1a Sutherland Street, SW1V 4LD. Real cider no longer sold.

  • SW6, RETRO CAFE, 241 Munster Road, SW6 6BS. Breweries Street-corner cafe-bar, selling six keg beers including three "premium" foreign lagers. Cafe by day, music bar and diner by night. Live Classic Rock, Blues, Rock n Roll & Soul. "Admission free to live music but all donations to support the artists will be gratefully received".

  • SW7, 1606 BAR (Rembrandt Hotel Ltd), 11 Thurloe Place, SW7 2RS. Smart conservatory lounge bar in this 190-room upmarket hotel. Afternoon tea is served here from 2.30 to 6.30, otherwise a range of sandwiches and more substantial pub food is available. Three keg beers/lagers are available but no cask ale.

  • W1, BLUE POSTS, 28 Rupert Street, W1D 6DJ. Real cider no longer available.

  • W1, BOOM BATTLE BAR, 70-88 Oxford Street, W1D 1BP. Part of a growing national chain of "experience bar" venues, this is a 15,000-plus square-foot venue offering augmented reality axe throwing and darts, shuffleboards, karaoke rooms, beer pong, Escape Hunt adventures and “crazier golf” alongside a drinks menu and a limited “Boom bites” street-food offering. Drinks include draught Guinness and various draught keg beers.

  • W1, FREEDOM (Soho Bars), 66 Wardour Street, W1F 0TA. Closed for refurb.

  • W1, JERUSALEM BAR & KITCHEN (Breakfast Group), 33-34 Rathbone Place, W1T 1JQ. Reopened as LUCY WONG, a cocktail and dim sum & light Chinese food bar. It is a basement site with a Costa Coffee outlet at ground-floor level. Some draught beers are available within the drinks menu. Note restricted opening hours.

  • W1, LITTLE VIOLET DOOR, 9 Kingly Street, W1B 5PH. Part of the small "Little Door" chain of cocktail bars in London. The conceit is that this is a flatshare, turned into a cocktail bar/restaurant. A couple of draught keg beers are available plus bottles/cans and of course cocktails and wines. Food is available pretty much all the time but with separate lunch and brunch menus. See venue website for offers. There is a small seating area outside in Kingly Street, and of course inside.

  • W1, MR FOGG'S PAWNBROKERS, 50 Dean Sreet, W1D 5BQ. Next door to the well-known French House pub, this is one of the growing London chain of Mr Fogg's cocktail bars, now all falling within CAMRAs definition of a pub. All the Fogg's venues are individual and quirky, and the conceit at this one is that Phileas Fogg's "wayward half-brother Frank Fogg (once a pawnbroker by trade) has opened the doors to his newly-acquired Victorian shop, selling a bizarre display of unique artefacts collected from around the world." The venue is split into three spaces, the Pawnbrokers Counter, the Strong Room & the Textiles Room. Aside from the drinks, the food offering is a small selection of nibbles, cheese and charcuterie.

  • W1, NQ64, 53-54 Berwick Street, W1F 8SP. This basement Soho site just south of Oxford Street is part of a growing national chain of gamer-themed bars, offering a mix of retro gaming and drinks. The games include Time Crisis, Guitar Hero, Dancing Stage and Pac-Man, plus classic consoles; free to use for guests buying drinks. The drinks offer includes several gamer-themed cocktails plus a selection of craft beer, wines, spirits and soft drinks. No food offering. Dress code is smart / casual: no tracksuits/jogging bottoms/sports shorts. The site is also the emergency exit for the Simmons bar on the next street east, Wardour Street. The site had planning permission for demolition and rebuild retaining facade but this does not appear to have happened.

  • W1, SIMMONS TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD, 17 Manette Street, W1D 4AS. Just a few yards off Tottenham Court Road in the small road leading to the "Pillars of Hercules", this is one of the London-wide Simmons cocktail bar chain. Disco, happy hour. Handy for the tube station & Elizabeth Line.

  • W2, GREEN MAN (Macneil Ltd/Bestplace Ltd/Bestplace (Ei Group)), 308 Edgware Road, W2 1DY. No real cider.

  • W2, MAD BISHOP & BEAR (Fuller's), Upper Level, The Lawn, Paddington Station Concourse, W2 1HB. Real cider no longer available.

  • W6, HAMPSHIRE (Heineken), 227 King Street, W6 9JT. Closed, being refurbished.

  • W6, LATYMERS (Fuller's), 157 Hammersmith Road, W6 8BS. 10% off real ales for CAMRA members.

  • W6, PEAR TREE, 14 Margravine Road, W6 8HJ. No real cider.

  • W8, KENSINGTON WINE ROOMS 127-129 Kensington Church Street, W8 7LP. Reopened by the team behind Allsopp’s Brewery and renamed BLUE STOOPS. One block north of the Churchill Arms this site, previously a wine bar, has been re-opened. It is named in homage to the original Blue Stoops in Burton-upon-Trent, where Allsopp's brewed from 1730. Allsopp's Best Bitter, India Pale Ale and Pale Ale available and a guest such as Kirkstall Three Swords. Allsopp's recommenced brewing in 2020 and the original Allsopp’s IPA now has pride of place on the pub’s bar. Allsopp's has also commissioned the manufacture of beer engines with high “swan necks”, allowing the pumping by hand of ale from the cellar up to customers, in a theatrical manner. Ale prices are reported as reasonable for the area. Also note the various brewery memorabilia and the marvellous Allsopp's mirror on the wall. A menu of seasonal English food is available including a short bar-food menu. But note that on Sundays, only the Sunday menu is offered in both the front bar and back dining room. The pub has also recently announced a collaboration with Blandy's, the Madeira winemaker. The pub has garnered very good reviews since it opened and The Times restaurant critic said after his visit "the headline on the Blue Stoops for me is that it is very good and not very expensive...it is a brilliant little pub trying out great new things".

  • W14, HAND & FLOWER (Fuller's), 1 Hammersmith Road, W14 8XJ. Reopened following refurb.

  • WC2, CHESHIRE CHEESE (Shepherd Neame), 5 Little Essex Street, WC2R 3LD. Reopened mid-October 2024 and real ale reinstated. Shepherd Neame Master Brew and Whitstable Bay Pale Ale and 2 Changing beers also from Sheps. Operated by Wellman Taverns who run a number of Sheps pubs and reported open seven days a week. Up to four cask ales should be available. Lunchtime menu of hot and cold sandwiches and now also doing evening meals with two menus: burgers in the saloon bar and sausage and mash etc in the upstairs newly re-done dining room.

  • WC2, CLUBHOUSE 5 (Stonegate), 5 Lisle Street, WC2H 7BG. Renamed THREE LANTERNS.

  • WC2, GEORGE (Greene King/ /Metropolitan), 213 Strand, WC2R 1AP. No real cider available.

  • WC2, LE BEAUJOLAIS, 25 Litchfield Street, WC2H 9NJ. Very close to Charing Cross Road, this is one of the most famous wine bars in central London, and now in conformance with CAMRAs definition of a pub. The venue is authentically French with the ground-floor bar providing drinks and food, whilst downstairs is a members-only restaurant. The wines, beers and other drinks, and food offered are, of course, all French as are the staff. Regulars "clock in" via a wall blackboard with sliding in/out tabs against their names. A limited number of tables may be booked for lunch in the ground-floor bar but half are reserved for walk-ins. And no bookings are taken here for the evening. Well worth a visit to soak in the atmosphere; and of course the food and drink.

  • WC2, ROADHOUSE, 35 Jubilee Market, The Piazza, WC2E 8BE. This venue is an amalgamation of 1A Tavistock Street and 35 The Piazza to form a 500-capacity underground restaurant and late night entertainment, live music and performance venue named STEREO. Drinks include various draught keg beers. The food menu includes bar snacks and an a la carte menu. "A dynamic and eclectic music programme each night - a house band will offer relaxed vibes, before the stage welcomes a rotating series of resident DJs and curated one-off artist performances." Some events may require an admission charge. Note restricted opening hours.

  • WC2, ROYAL GEORGE (Gabrielle Properties Ltd/Mitchells & Butlers/Castle (Mitchells & Butlers)), 133 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0EA. Reopened following refurb.

  • WC2, SALVADOR & AMANDA (The Breakfast Group), 8 Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JA. Closed for site redevelopment.

  • WC2, SIMMONS LEICESTER SQUARE 28A Leicester Square, WC2H 7LE. This venue, with an entrance next to the Moon Under Water pub, is a glitzy underground cocktail bar in this very busy tourist area of central London. Disco dance floor, happy hour. Part of the London-wide Simmons chain.

  • WC2, WHITE SWAN (M&B/Nicholson's), 14 New Row, WC2N 4LF. No real cider.

  • Hammersmith Belle - has now reopened.

 

National CAMRA news

For the latest news check out our Facebook page (please note: we are not posting on our X/Twitter page at present). Also for news from CAMRA across London see London Drinker, and the London CAMRA Facebook page.

Wanda (branch chairman) presents certificate to Chris of the Victoria, with branch members. Photo courtesy of Fuller's.
Wanda (branch chairman) presents certificate to Chris of the Victoria, with branch members. Photo courtesy of Fuller's.

Victoria wins Pub of the Year

The Victoria on Strathearn Place near London’s Paddington Station has been named CAMRA West London Pub of the Year. The pub, which has just reopened following redecoration, has been under the stewardship of General Manager Chris Cochran for 23 years whose wife Helen now runs another Fuller’s pub, the Admiralty on Trafalgar Square.

Chris said: “This is such great recognition. We have come second in West London CAMRA’s Pub of the Year competition more times than I care to remember. So having just reopened – and with the pub looking so fantastic – this is the icing on the cake.

In a clean sweep for Fuller’s pubs in our branch competition, The Star Tavern in Belgravia – one of only five pubs that has been in every edition of The Good Beer Guide – took second place, and The Antelope near Sloane Square took third.

Wanda Piontek, Chairman of West London branch said: “The Victoria is just a delightful place to visit – it really is a quintessential embodiment of what a great pub should be. A fantastic pint, an iconic venue and a great host in Chris. It’s a pleasure to recognise it with this award. It’s also good to see Fuller’s pubs scoring so highly. Fuller’s has always taken beer quality incredibly seriously and we are pleased to be able to recognise this.“

Beer scoring and the Good Beer Guide

You are more than likely aware of the ‘Good Beer Guide’, CAMRA’s flagship publication, that lists the best pubs in the UK, but what you may not know is how those pubs are selected. Mainly, it is as a result of beer scores being submitted by CAMRA members from across the country, the unfortunate reality is that those scores are mainly derived from the few branch activists that visit the pubs within their branch.

As a CAMRA member you can send in beer scores to West London or any other local CAMRA branch via the WhatPub website. If you have ever wondered why your favourite pub that sells really good beer, isn’t in the Good Beer Guide then this may well be because it hasn’t had enough visits rating the quality of the beer. Entering the scores doesn’t automatically get your pub into the Good Beer Guide as scoring beers is the first stage of a multi-stage process, but beer scoring on a consistent basis contributes to the process of selection of pubs that go into the Good Beer Guide.

You don’t have to be an ‘expert’ to begin scoring and the process is pretty simple. Please remember though that it is not about your personal favourite beer receiving the highest score, or that the reason that you are doing it is just to get your favourite pub into the Good Beer Guide. You will more than likely try a beer that isn’t to your normal taste but what you need to consider is the quality of the beer. Ask yourself whether the publican has kept it in good condition and how have they served it, and score it in accordance with the scoring system in WhatPub, which is quite simple to use.

In order to submit your scores you need to login to WhatPub which is CAMRA’s online pub guide. The address is www.whatpub.com and you can access the website by using your smartphone whilst you are still drinking your pint. The website contains over 31,000 pubs from all over the UK.

Here are the steps to submitting a beer score, or if you prefer you can watch a video taking you through this at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSgRLWj7q20.

  1. Login on whatpub.com. To do this you will need your CAMRA membership number and your CAMRA password.
  2. Start searching for your pub by name of the pub, the location or nearest tube/rail station. Postcodes and postcode areas eg W14 can also be used, but note that W1, WC2 and SW1 don’t work (you need to use SW1E etc instead). If you’re scoring while in the pub using your smartphone though you can just tap the ‘Nearby pubs’ button.
  3. Locate the 'Submit Beer Score' on the tab bar underneath the pub photo if you are using a smartphone or on the right hand side of the screen if you are using a computer.
  4. Enter the date, score, brewery name and the name of the beer as the fields automatically pop up. If the beer that you are drinking is new or a one off by the brewery then you may need to type in the full name.
  5. Click the 'submit' button and your score will be winging its way to the branch’s Pubs Officer.

Another added bonus is the fact that the website will automatically keep a record of all your scores and when you made them so you can look back to see what beers you have had in a particular pub and how you rated them.

As an alternative you can also use the Good Beer Guide app at www.goodbeerguide.org.uk to score your beers. See https://camra.org.uk/about/publications/camras-good-beer-guide-app/ for information about this app.

In West London branch we have over 700 pubs and clubs listed in WhatPub. As you can imagine it’s quite difficult keeping track of how all of these are doing! Scores submitted by members are hugely valuable in identifying which pubs are consistently serving beer in excellent condition and can be considered for inclusion in the Good Beer Guide. The scores also help us to identify pubs which require further surveys.

We warmly welcome scores from CAMRA members regardless of whether you live locally or have just been to one or two pubs while visiting the area.

Also, if you have any updates of the details in the WhatPub entry for a pub you’ve visited these would also be very helpful! Just click on the ‘Submit Updates’ tab in WhatPub and fill in the form with your updates.

You can learn more about beer scoring on the national CAMRA website at www.camra.org.uk/nbss including details of what the different scores mean and some frequently asked questions.

(This article is adapted from articles by Danny Clark in ‘Draught Copy’ and Sonia James-Henry in ‘Mersey Ale’ CAMRA magazines. Thanks!)

Upcoming events

22 Jan 2025;
07:00PM -
Branch meeting: Bear
28 Jan 2025;
02:00PM -
Social, meet Scarsdale Tavern

Buy your copy of the Good Beer Guide now

Buy your copy of the Good Beer Guide here