Richmond Pub Crawl

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.