Here's an update on the latest news and information from West London branch of CAMRA for May 2018. Further news can be found in the April/May edition of London Drinker. Updates since the beginning of the month are marked [NEW] or [UPDATED].

Branch events

• The branch AGM (annual general meeting) will be held on Tuesday 22 May at the Defector's Weld (upstairs), 170 Uxbridge Road, Shepherds Bush, W12 8AA. After the formal part of the AGM is concluded we'll have an informal question and answer session with the branch committee, and we'll have a talk from Jamie Percival of Sambrook's Brewery about hops and how they affect different beers. A buffet will be available after the meeting - a small charge towards its cost will be requested on the day.
  
• The third place presentation for the West London CAMRA Pub of the Year is to be held on Wednesday 2 May at 7pm at the Churchill Arms, 119 Kensington Church Street, W8 7LN (nearest tube Notting Hill Gate). All welcome.
• The second place presentation for the West London CAMRA Pub of the Year is to be held on Tuesday 15 May at 7pm at the Cask Pub & Kitchen, 6 Charlwood Street, SW1V 2EE (nearest tubes Pimlico, Victoria). All welcome.
• [NEW]: West London branch will be joining the Union Tavern, 45 Woodfield Road, W9 for their Meet The Brewer event with Dig Brew on Tuesday 5 June at 7pm. Book with pub.
• [NEW]: The June branch meeting is at Portobello Brewery, Unit 6, Mitre Bridge Industrial Estate, Mitre Way, London, W10 6AU on 12 June. We'll be meeting from 7pm for a 7.30pm start to the meeting.
• [NEW]: West London branch will be joining the Union Tavern, 45 Woodfield Road, W9 for their Meet The Brewer event (brewery to be confirmed) on Tuesday 10 July at 7pm. Book with pub.
• [NEW]: The July branch meeting is at the Star Tavern (upstairs), 6 Belgrave Mews West on Tuesday 24 July. We'll be meeting from 7pm for a 7.30pm start to the meeting.
• [NEW]: West London branch will be joining the Union Tavern, 45 Woodfield Road, W9 for their Meet The Brewer event (brewery to be confirmed) on Tuesday 7 August at 7pm. Book with pub.
  

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Other CAMRA events

• The Great British Beer Festival 2018 will be held at Olympia in West Kensington on 7 to 11 August. Advanced tickets and full details are now available from the GBBF website.
• CAMRA's London Pubs Group will be having their next crawl of historic pubs on 23rd June in Orpington, Cudham, Downe and Chelsfield. See the London Pubs Group website for details.
• Bexley Beer Festival is on 3rd to 5th May.
• Kingston Beer Festival is on 17th to 19th May.
• Kidbrooke Beer and Cider Festival is on 24th to 26th May.
• [NEW]: Ealing Beer Festival is on 11 to 14 July.
  

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Branch and regional CAMRA news

• The April/May issue of London Drinker is out in pubs across London and online with all the latest news about pubs, CAMRA and beer related events.
  

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 Pub news

• O'Donaghue's on Goldhawk Road, Shepherds Bush has now been transformed into Server, a pub which specialises in games with over 70 board games and various video games. It has one real ale Signature Brew Roadie plus a range of keg beers.
• [UPDATED] The Truscott Arms in Maida Vale reopened during May, with a new name The Hero of Maida.
• The Newman Arms in Fitzrovia is due to reopen on 16 May under management of Truman's Brewery. It will feature 12 keg and 4 cask beers and will include some guest beers. Takeaway growlers will be available: the growler machine will fill 910ml cans with any draught beer on site, for customers to take away.
  

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National CAMRA news

• From next month, CAMRA members will no longer automatically receive What's Brewing and BEER magazine by post. It's easy though to opt-in for a postal copy either by logging into the members section of the CAMRA website, and clicking the "Edit your membership information" button, or alternatively by calling CAMRA on 0330 058 3130, or emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject "BEER/WB Preferences". However, you may like to consider instead reading What's Brewing online at wb.camra.org.uk to help reduce the environmental impact and help us save money for our campaigning work.

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For the latest news check out our Facebook and Twitter pages! Also for news from CAMRA across London see London Drinker, and the London CAMRA Facebook page.

There's been recently a significant change to the area covered by West London Branch. Since 1st September, the branch boundaries for the first time have been defined by the London boroughs rather than by postcode sectors. We are now the branch covering the boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea and the City of Westminster.

The main reason for this is that so much of our campaigning work today is in pub preservation to defend pubs from closure. It makes it much easier if we only have three local authorities we need to consult with, and we will only need to monitor planning applications affecting pubs in those three boroughs. A further benefit is that explaining the area our branch covers is much simpler and no longer involves a massive list of postcodes!

To mark the changes to the branch boundaries we recently enjoyed a joint social with North London Branch in the St John's Wood/Lisson Grove/northern Marylebone area visiting some of the pubs which would transfer from North London branch area to West London. We had a good turnout on the social from both branches.

There is a map giving full details of the pubs which will change branch areas. A simplified description of the main changes affecting our branch is as follows:

• The east of Fitzrovia (in Camden borough) transfers from West London to North London
• The north of WC2 including most of Holborn and the north of Covent Garden (in Camden borough) transfers from West London to North London
• St John's Wood and Lisson Grove (in the City of Westminster) transfers from North London to West London
• Most of Chiswick (in Hounslow borough) transfers from West London to Richmond & Hounslow Branch. The area north of Chiswick Park station (in Ealing borough) however transfers to West Middlesex Branch.

We'll be updating the pub guide section of this site in the near future with the new pubs in our branch area - in the meantime please search WhatPub.com. There is also a map showing the branch pubs.

Many other London branches are also changing their boundaries - for further information please check out this page on the London CAMRA site.

It may have been a stormy night, but hardly dark, though that wasn't holding back the modest celebrations in the back streets of Belgravia.

A miscellany of regulars, head brewers George Young (Fuller's) and Paddy Johnson (Windsor and Eton Brewery), others from the Griffin brewery team headed by Fuller's Inns MD Jonathon Swaine, and members from across thronged the Star Tavern in late June. For it was the evening that CAMRA West London was to present Marta with the certificate recording the pub's first place as branch Pub of the Year 2017!

Supported by a strong team branch chair Les Maggs got straight to nitty gritty. While some stragglers were still arriving, shaking off the rain, and making sure that they had a glass of the '1845', we all saluted the success of Marta and her team. With over real ale 600 pubs across three London boroughs, and an array of excellent pubs in the running, it is a magnificent achievement to reach the short-list let alone to beat the the other contenders.

(Thanks to Dominic Pinto for this article, and thanks to Gill Shaw/Fuller's for the photo)

We recently presented the second place certificate for the West London CAMRA Pub of the Year to the Union Tavern, near Westbourne Park tube station. Our chairman Les Maggs (accompanied by some other branch members) can be seen here presenting the certificate to Craig and his team.

The Union Tavern is a great pub set in a lovely location by the Grand Union Canal with its canalside terrace being particularly popular on a nice sunny day. The pub has an excellent record for supporting London microbreweries, with a policy of stocking mostly beers produced within 30 miles and its regular 'Meet the Brewer' evenings.