Richmond Pub Explorations

Mid-March provided the chance to join a 'Pub Research' trip to the affluent leafy surrounds of Richmond, West London, as organised by folks on CAMRA Discourse.
The day would serve up a mix of venues, pricey pints, a shrine to David Bowie, the Ted Lasso pub, and some fine company.
Here's the route for the day, starting at the bottom in the Old Ship...

My journey on the Oxford Tube was delayed due to being stuck a few hundred meters behind an accident on the M40 which saw the motorway closed for over an hour.
"Can we get out?" the students on the back seat asked the driver when he did the rounds updating passengers.  "No, we're on a motorway you daft buggers."
Perhaps they realised how close we were to Beaconsfield Spoons.

My plan for breakfast, a leisurely journey out west, perhaps an extra pre-noon pub, all slipped away as the traffic sat unmoving.  In the end it was surprising I made it from Notting Hill on the District Line to the first venue just 25-minutes past the midday meeting time.
Obviously I had no time to sort out the lighting in my shoddy pub picture...

The Old Ship (3 King Street, Richmond, TW9 1ND)
This town centre inn has been run by Young's since 1869, although existed as a pub for a fair few years prior to that.

Heading into the left-sided of the two ground floor bars, I grabbed a Twickenham 'Naked Ladies'.  The name and pump clip being frowned upon by some woke folk, despite it referring to a statue in the grounds of York House. 

 

The pub research crew numbered nine, myself included, having travelled from such exotic locations as Croydon, North Hampshire, Leicester, and Stafford.
The sun streamed through the windows with their stained glass designs; the fire crackled (perhaps unnecessarily on this warm day); the first pint went down a treat.

As it should at a steep £7.10.  
"Am I going to get a sub-£5 pint in Richmond?" I asked.
"You'll be lucky to get a sub-£6 pint," came the reply. 

Right - time to move on.  We walked along the side of Richmond Green before turning down Old Palace Lane, where the last building before reaching the Thames is The White Swan.

The White Swan (26 Old Palace Lane, Richmond, TW9 1PG)
As the road is a dead-end, this location is unspoilt by traffic - nicely tucked away in the quiet backstreets, their website suggesting we'd found "Richmond's best kept secret".
It was very foody, all tables inside filled with lunchtime winter menu trade.  Luckily for us the weather was glorious so having to sit on a sunny, leafy, enclosed terrace, with the trains rumbling by on the line behind us, was no hardship.
Cask ale on offer was Harvey's 'Sussex Best' or Surrey Hills 'Shere Drop'.
Despite having a 0.2% higher ABV, the Shere Drop was 60p cheaper than Harvey's.  So, being a penny-counting scrooge, of course I went for that.  On great form...NBSS 4.

Right...back to the Green and onward to the Cricketers in the corner.

Well, at least that was the plan.
By the time I'd finishing taking a picture, several of our group were bustling back out, declaring it not worth a stop for the Greene King house beer.  They made their way instead to the Prince's Head, just a couple of doors down.
Time for a quick half by myself? After all, I'd taken a photo.

The Cricketer's (24 The Green, Richmond, TW9 1LX)
Beers on the three wickets on the bar (I think I can get away with that when the pub's called the Cricketers) advertised a Tim Taylor 'Landlord' (coming soon), a house beer 'Cricketers Pale' (coming soon) and the mysterious 'Triple C'...

Hardy & Hanson's Bitter, I suspect.  3.9% ABV, served with a foaming head...brown and twiggy.
I could claim everyone missed the beer of the day, but I'd be fooling nobody.
What can I say about the pub?  Mostly dining custom, an ill-fitting soundtrack of dire modern pop, cricket bats hung from the wall.

And cricketing Players cigarette cards in the Gents...

Mr Daniels, Somerset, top-row, third-from-right, is my favourite for finding time for some casual in-game pipe smoking. 

I made short work of my Triple C and undertook the 30-second saunter to join the rest of the group in the Prince's Head.

The Prince's Head (28 The Green, Richmond, TW9 1LX)
Hang on a minute...it's the Ted Lasso pub!
Hence the scarf behind the bar from fictional AFC Richmond.  Masquerading as the Crown and Anchor in the TV show probably accounts for a fair bit of extra custom, the place being relatively busy on a Friday lunchtime, 'please wait to be seated' signs for the dining tables.
Here's the cask line-up, Pride warranting two pump clips...

A sensible half of 'ESB' for me.

We had a little further to walk to reach the next pub on the itinerary, apparently one of Richmond's oldest.

The Red Cow (59 Sheen Road, Richmond, TW9 1YJ)
It's also surely a contender for the closest tree to a pub award, The Red Cow is situated at the convergence of two roads, meaning hanging baskets to maintain on two sides.  I'll consider the Worple Way side to the 'back' due to the extraction duct, although our way in was through the open doors under the canopy.

This was a Young's house for many-a-year, but was sold to Punch in 2021, now with a community focus and dishing up food from a Cambodian kitchen.
Despite recent modernisations making the place bright and airy, the Red Cow retains a bit of pub heritage with the bar back.  Of Victorian origin, it's an impressive feature...

Real ales just out of the shot were Harvey's 'Sussex Best' or Timothy Taylor 'Boltmaker'.
A £5.90 pint of Sussex Best for me: well-kept and pleasantly enjoyable under the St Paddy's bunting.

Moving on, we made our way to the pub I was most looking forward to today - a real ale haven, recently a local branch CAMRA cider pub of the year, and once awarded a national cutest pub dog award.

The Mitre (20 St Mary's Grove, Richmond, TW9 1UY)

That's pub dog Rudi being stroked edge of picture.  He won his award aged 18-months, so is a much older fella now, providing us a good welcome.
The Mitre dates back to 1865 and - like the last and many other pubs in this area - was previously run by Young's.  It shut in 2012, reports suggesting it was in a quiet and sorry state, so fair play for the complete turn-around.  Fourteen hand pumps serving some lesser-seen beers and real cider, plus Neapolitan pizza seems to have done the job.

It was nice to see something a little different here, beers from Coley's, Darwin, Fownes, Wantsum, Burning Sky, Turning Point and Surrey Hills ('Shere Drop' being the house beer).

Based on it being a brewery I'd not previously encountered, I picked a half of the Coley's best bitter from Manchester.  And based on it being strong, hoppy and chocolatey, I picked a half of the Turning Point 'The Festive', an excellent flavoursome East India porter.

The clock ticked past 4pm and it was time to convince those members of the group who'd sunk into the leather cushioned armchairs that we needed to move on, heading north to our 6th (official) pub of the day.
Signage as we crossed the District Line by footbridge confirmed we were now about to enter North Richmond..

Could we Hope for a good pint in this neck of the woods?...

The Hope (115-117 Kew Road, Richmond, TW9 2PN)
Erm...no, not really.
In 2020 The Hope turned into the private members' Richmond Club.  That didn't last too long, as it has now been re-opened as a pub again, offering live music and comedy if you're here at the right time.  Interrogating Stafford Paul's encyclopaedic pub and brewery knowledge was entertainment enough for us.
Wadworth '6X' was the only beer available, taking over two pump clips...

That's an awful lot of flower displays on the bar.
And they've opted for a very dark grey paint job.
But never fear - because they have a Bowie shrine in the corner!!!

Now that's something you don't see everywhere.
More Bowie on a random wall as we trekked from The Hope back to the central hub of Richmond...

Where our final venue on the trip was directly next to the train station in a splendid wedge of a building...

The Railway Tavern (28/29 The Quadrant, Richmond, TW9 1DN)
This old hotel dates back to 1888, was previously called the South-Western, and had to endure a spell as O'Neill's.  Not to be confused with The Station Hotel which once stood across the road and featured early Rolling Stones gigs, although the Railway was used as a practice space for The Roosters, including a young Eric Clapton and Tom McGuinness, who'd go on to be a member of  Manfred Mann.
The pub was taken over by Nicholson's in 2024.
Hence the duller-than-they-used to-be Nicholson's range of ales: their St Austell brewed pale ale, Pride, or Adnam's two big hitters.

£3.30 procured me a half of 'Broadside'.
So - in the end - nothing topped the wicked price of that Twickenham beer in the first pub of the day.  And the Shere Drop in the second pub still stood out as my best beer of the day.

A big thanks to those who put the itinerary together and picked the pubs, ensuring I visited a few places that I may not have ventured to if left to my own devices.
And thank you for making the odd-bod from Oxford so welcome. 

Prop Up the Bar's Foolhardy Bonus Pub:
I wasn't quite ready to catch the tube back to central London, having spied a Beer Guide entry not too far away on the other side of the river.
Somewhere used in the Beatles film A Hard Days Night.

The Turks Head (28 Winchester Road, St. Margarets, TW1 1LF)
It's a bit of a street corner stunner, possibly looking its best lit up at dusk.
All pubs with turrets are ace. (Unproven Prop Up the Bar fact).

This Edwardian pub dates back to 1902 although it has been altered inside to make it open-plan, given a coat of gastro-blue paint, with added Chesterfield sofas in front of an unused fireplace.
What are those things on the ceiling?

The beer range included Fullers 'Pride' or the rugby-themed 'Prop Me Up' alongside Mondo 'Juliet' pale ale.
'Prop Me Up' seemed apt, considering the title I picked for this blog years ago. 
And appropriate as I would benefit from someone to prop me up by this point.
And where better to have a rugby beer, with Twickenham Stadium just down the road.

After a superb day, it was time to head home.
Then return to London for a different pub crawl the following day.

West Brom Wanderings

I picked the most dull, grey and miserable day to make a trip to the West Midlands. 
Then picked a some dull, grey and miserable bits of the urban sprawl to visit.

My first point of call would be Perry Barr.  
I've never been able to muster the enthusiasm at the end of a day to make the short hop from Birmingham New Street to Perry Barr 'Spoons.  So, I decided to do it first on this occasion to claim this beer guide tick.
A 20-minute bus ride took me up the A34, past the sadly shuttered Barton Arms, and onto the One Stop Shopping centre. 
On the front of this is The Arthur Robertson - not one of the chain's most photogenic locations.

The Arthur Robertson (51-53 One Stop Retail Park, Walsall Road, Perry Barr, B42 1AA)
But step inside and the Arthur Robertson has a bit of character and a decent number of pre-noon punters.  Probably helped by the fact that there are a fair few closed pubs in the vicinity, the nearest pint of cask ale being 0.7 miles away in pubs that don't seem particularly enticing.

This 'Spoons is named after local athletics club Birchfield Harriers' first Olympian and medal winner.
It's populated by non-athletic-looking folk (myself included), spread over several areas divided by large bookshelves and partition walls adorned with old pictures.
Here's the cask range...

Service without a smile and a bit of a disparaging look when I tried to order the Froth Blowers which had finished. Turn the pump clip around!
I settled on a Fixed Wheel 'The Art of Van', an oddly named 4.4% super fruity and chewy IPA.

Then checked out the fairly trad carpet...

...and the Aston Villa display, complete with digital countdown...

Possibly counting down the number of days until it became unrealistic to talk about Villa as 2025/26 title contenders.

As mentioned before, Perry Barr is short on cask ale and general pubbage.
It's even more barren heading westward as I was - 3.3 miles through Hounslow with not even a drop of Doom Bar to drink.
I wasn't stopping at the first available pub, instead taking a roundabout route into the northern West Brom 'burbs to the Red Lion...

The Red Lion (190 All Saints Way, West Bromwich, B71 1RH)
This is prime desi pub territory, where the old sprawling roadside hostelries have been repurposed as eating spots with public bars and cricket on TV.
The drinker's room is the small front bar, although most of the traditional features have been zapped out of it in a smart refurb. 
I stuck in the back dining room, an extension leading to a large covered patio area.  Booth seating around the sides, 20-20 from Colombo on giant HD screens which you're never more than a couple of meters away from.

Thumbs-up for the Red Lion - not just for the superb model lions in front, but also for serving real ale: Sharps 'Twin Coast' or Wye Valley 'Butty Bach'.  A West Midlands fave Butty Bach for me, presented in good condition.  Accompanied by a paneer Balti that didn't look much portion-wise but successfully filled me up.

Time to walk off some of those calories with a fairly long trek down Heath Lane - a straight line on one road which changed names several times as it weaved through different eras of housing estates, before becoming Witton Lane, home to my next pub.

Three Horseshoes (86 Witton Lane, West Bromwich, B71 2AQ)
This was the obligatory Black Country Ales pub on a West Midlands day out.  They took over and refurbished the Horseshoes in 2016, lining the bar with hand pumps, upholstering the seating with tartan, and hanging old pictures of the local area on busily beige wallpapered walls.

Too many ale choices for me to contemplate when the bar staff were poised to pour my pint as soon as I arrived at the bar.  So I selected the Bosun's Brew Co 'Castaway', thinking it was a new brewery for me, before Untappd smugly confirmed I'd had the exact same beer before.  I'll never succeed as a beer ticker.

The 20-20 cricket continued on the TV, accompanied with the 8 minutes 57 seconds of November Rain as I sat down and sipped a perfectly enjoyable pint.

On the walk to the Three Horseshoes I'd passed a large grey estate pub which I figured was worth poking my head into.
Picture hampered by clouds as grey as the building and too many parked cars.

The Gough Arms (Jowetts Lane, West Bromwich, B71 2QR)
Crikey...they made pubs big once, didn't they?
This is a sprawling open-plan place with various distinct areas - the loungy bit, the pool table to one side, a big horseshoe bar looping around to face both front and back spaces.  I ordered the sole cask, a quite acceptable pint of Banks's 'Amber' at a very respectable price.

There was some community stuff underway in a raised area up involving piles of clothes and fabrics followed by fish and chip lunches for a group of older ladies, one of whom scowled at me an awful lot.
This looks to be a great community pub, advertising meal deals, bingo, music, and indoor car boot sales.  Long may it last.

Leaving the Gough Arms, there was some big back-tracking on myself to reach the Royal Oak - close to my lunchtime curry in the Red Lion, but not open at the time I'd been nearby.  I hopped aboard a random eastbound bus which saved some of the walk, then made the final trek into the side streets just as the rain started.

The Royal Oak (14 Newton St, West Bromwich, B71 3RQ)
Stepping in, there wasn't a soul in sight: the TV's on, the lights off.
It took an age for the someone to arrive and serve me a pint of 'HPA' (other options being 'Butty Bach' and 'Proper Job').

It's a lovely little two-roomed pub, made cosy with the bench seating around the sides of the rooms and proper pub furniture.  Nice cushioned bar too...

If the lights had been off prior to my arrival to save on electrics, the TVs in each bar could have been unplugged too.  A replay of Birmingham Ladies vs Crystal Palace with no-one to watch it really was pub telly for the sake of it.
A local arrived shortly after I'd sat down, so I didn't remain entirely by myself.
And despite it possibly being the first pint served on the day, the Wye Valley 'HPA' was great.

Out into the increasing gloom and drizzle, and quickly onto bus number 74 to the centre of West Bromwich.
I feel a little bit guilty that I wasn't intrepid enough to explore the busy hub of West Brom itself.  But the chaos of school home-time at the bus station and the dreich day made me just want to move on and claim my last Good Beer Guide tick in the area, a couple of miles up the road.

The Rising Sun (116 Horseley Road, Tipton, DY4 7NH)
Back in 1999 this was crowned CAMRA National Pub of the Year, although I suspect it's changed a bit since then.  The Victorian hostelry was taken on by Black Country Ales in 2013, so provided the common sight of lots of hand pumps and a deli counter full of cobs.
For a change (on my pub visits), it was full of customers - not a seat to be had in the busy main bar.  So I've failed miserably to get a decent pic outside or in.
It's not really somewhere I'm likely to be passing any time soon for a return visit to put that right. 
No, not even for the seance night...

But I was pleased to tick off another BCA pub, content with my cheese and onion cob (posh packaging!) and pint of Small World 'Winter Bank'.

It took much longer than expected to travel back to West Brom on the slow-moving traffic-clogged Black Country New Road.  Having had enough of buses, I jumped on the tram back to Brum.  All of which wore me out and indicated it was time to head home.
Although perhaps there was still time for this...

 

Cheers! 🍻