March 2024 news
Here's an update on the latest news and information from West London branch of CAMRA.
Branch and other local CAMRA 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:
- February
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Wed 28 (7/7.30pm) Meeting: Carpenters Arms, Seymour Place, W1H 7NE
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March
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Tue 5 (2pm) Social: meet Buckingham Arms, Petty France, SW1H 9EU; 3pm Cask and Glass, SW1E 5HN, 4pm Wetherspoons @ Victoria Station concourse.
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Wed 20 (7pm) Social: meet Wellington, 351 Strand, WC2R 0HS (will probably later continue to further pubs, details to be confirmed).
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Branch and regional CAMRA news and events
- London Pubs Group continues its tours of historic pubs - for information see https://londonpubsgroup.camra.org.uk/events. Upcoming events: 15 June 2024 - Daytime tour of Rotherhithe and Bermondsey.
- The February/March issue of London Drinker is now available in pubs across London and online at https://londondrinker.camra.org.uk/wordpress/ with details of CAMRA and beer related events across London, pub and brewery news, and more.
- The branch Pub of the Year voting was just about to close at time of writing (on 29th February). All branch members were emailed with the details. The finalists were the Antelope (Eaton Terrace, SW1), Bear (Spring Street, W2), Cask Pub & Kitchen (Charlwood Street, SW1), Jackalope (Weymouth Mews, W1), Star Tavern (Belgrave Mews West, SW1), and Victoria (Strathearn Place, W2). The winner will be announced soon!
Pub and brewery news
- The Union Tavern, Westbourne Park is due to temporarily close for refurbishment from 3rd March until 25th March.
- The Hero of Maida is planned to be reopened this spring by the Public House Group.
- The Brass Monkey, Vauxhall Bridge Road has been reported to be no longer selling real ale.
- The Bolton, Earls Court Road which is currently closed has been occupied by squatters.
- NW1, GLOBE (Wellington), 47 Lisson Grove, NW1 6UB. 10% off cask ale for CAMRA members.
- NW1, SPORTS BAR & GRILL (Stonegate), Melcombe Place, NW1 6JJ. No longer Cask Marque accredited.
- SW1, GRENADIER (Grosvenor Estate/Greene King/Ineos 123 Ltd), 18 Wilton Row, SW1X 7NR. CLOSED for kitchen refurb. Reopening expected 29 Jan 2024.
- SW1, WETHERSPOONS (Network Rail/Wetherspoon/Wetherspoon), Unit 5, Upper Concourse, Victoria Station, Terminus Place, SW1V 1JT. CLOSED for expansion into neighbouring premises and refurbishment.
- SW3, QUEENS HEAD, 25-27 Tryon Street, SW3 3LG. Closed for seven years, this 3,600sq ft, two-storey 1840-build pub site finally reopened in December 2023, the second to open under the Tom Kerridge BUTCHER’S TAP & GRILL concept. This is his third London site and follows Kerridge's Bar & Grill at the Corinthia hotel in Whitehall, and Kerridge's Fish & Chips at Harrods' dining hall. Following very substantial refurb work, the ground-floor pub features a focal hardwood bar, chestnut leather booth seating and a bespoke timber staircase. The restaurant area is downstairs with an open plan kitchen equipped with meat-ageing fridges. The menu at Butcher's Tap & Grill Chelsea offers a selection of British-centric butcher-cuts, burgers, hot dogs and small bites, such as grass-fed beef rom HG Walter and Dovecote Farm and Longland Farm duck. The pub is open for lunch and dinner and serves a Sunday roast; as well as takeaway services. Kids eat free Monday - Thursday 3-5pm. Kerridge has said: "We very much want to be a local's local, somewhere to pop in, have a pint, watch some sport have a bite and relax. We will also be dog friendly so well behaved four legged friends are very welcome too!" There are three ale handpumps serving fairly low-ABV session beers including Rebellion IPA.
- SW6, BROADWAY BAR & GRILL (Stonegate), 474-476 Fulham Road, SW6 1BY. Reopened.
- SW6, KING'S HOUSE (Wellington/City Pub Company), 541 Kings Road, SW6 2EB. Closed, now a hireable events venue.
- SW6, WELLINGTON (Manica Properties), 56 Haldane Road, SW6 7EU. Planning granted for conversion to flats.
- SW7, BUMPKIN, 102 Old Brompton Road, SW7 3RD.Was in use as a popup pub until .June 2021 BROMPTON BEER & WINE HOUSE - on the market via Ian Scott.
- SW10, LOTS ROAD PUB & DINING ROOMS (Market Taverns), 114 Lots Road, SW10 0RJ. Shortened to LOTS ROAD.
- W1, ARBER GARDEN (Open House London), 1 Pearson Square, W1T 3BF. Closed future uncertain.
- W1, DE HEMS (M&B/Castle), 11 Macclesfield Street, W1D 5BW. Closed for refurb – due to reopen 1 Feb.
- W1, GEORGE & DRAGON (Ad-hoc Pubco), 151 Cleveland Street, W1T 6QN. Real Ale reinstated - Timothy Taylor Landlord.
- W1, SIMMONS SOHO (Soho Estates), 2 Bateman Street, W1D 4AE. Freeholder now City Pub Group.
- W1, WHITE HORSE (Jordan Trustees (Samuel Smith), 45 Rupert Street, W1D 7PJ. No longer sells real ale.
- W12, DEFECTOR'S WELD (Young's), 170 Uxbridge Road, W12 8AA. Reopened following lengthy refurbishment.
- W12, POCKET WATCH (Brakspear), 434 Uxbridge Road, W12 0NS. Real Ale no longer available.
- W14, HAVELOCK TAVERN (Greene King/Metropolitan), 57 Masbro Road, W14 0LS. Reported the real ale discount scheme no longer honoured.
- WC2, BAR & CO, The Wilfred, Unit1, Temple Pier, WC2R 2PN. Event venue on a boat. Sunk!
- WC2, OCHE , 105 Strand, WC2R 0AA. This venue is on the site of a demolished Smollensky's restaurant, The substantial rebuild included retail units at ground-floor level, one of which is Oche, which combines tech-enhanced darts with gastro food and is one of the growing number of socialising "experience venues" in London. The general ambience is high-tech plus neon lighting. Operator The Social Gaming Group is owned by Norwegian tech investor Karbon Invest. The food menu is of the "crossover tapas" variety plus sharing plates, and at the bar some keg beers and lagers are on offer. It is perfectly possible just to pop in for a drink without needing to book a playing area. See venue website for offers. Note restricted opening hours.
- M&B/Nicholson's chain has withdrawn from Cask Marque scheme. This includes FEATHERS, 18-20 Broadway, SW1H 0BH; CLACHAN, 34 Kingly Street, W1B 5QH; CROWN, 64 Brewer Street, W1F 9TP; MARQUIS OF GRANBY, 2 Rathbone Street, W1T 1NT; SWAN, 46 Hammersmith Broadway, W6 0DZ; WELLINGTON, 351 Strand, WC2R 0HS; WHITE SWAN 14 New Row, WC2N 4LF.
National CAMRA news
- More national CAMRA news and events can be found in CAMRA's online newspaper What's Brewing available at https://wb.camra.org.uk/.
- CAMRA also regularly produces a podcast 'Pubs. Pints. People' available at https://camra.org.uk/podcast/.
- The Good Beer Guide 2024 is now on sale at https://shop1.camra.org.uk/product-the-good-beer-guide-2024/. There is also a mobile friendly online Good Beer Guide app available at https://goodbeerguide.org.uk/.
- The national CAMRA members weekend and annual general meeting is being held in Dundee on 26th-28th April. See https://camra.org.uk/members-weekend-agm-conference/ for more details.
For the latest news check out our Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) pages. Also for news from CAMRA across London see London Drinker, and the London CAMRA Facebook page.
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.
- Login on whatpub.com. To do this you will need your CAMRA membership number and your CAMRA password.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!)
Silver award for the Victoria
On 19th June the West London branch attended the presentation of the runners up award for West London CAMRA branch pub of the year to the Victoria, Strathearn Place, Paddington. Chris enthusiastically accepted the award, in a very busy pub, and proudly announced he was going to add it to the collection of second place awards the pub has already been awarded. It had previously been runner-up in 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2022!
The pub is also one of CAMRA's Real Heritage Pubs with a very rare and wonderful mid-Victorian interior. It offers a selection of Fuller's beers plus a guest beer and meals, and a warm welcome!