The Foresters Arms, Kingston Upon Thames

This is a smart pub with a small public bar and separate dining room, that seems to have retained a fair bit of its original identity, unlike other pubs in the Hampton Wick area. The pub looks great on approach thanks to a fine coloured glazed tile façade, adorned with lots of bright hanging baskets and planters. There’s a good-sized bit of pavement to one side, which has been liberally filled with picnic benches, so that I could actually hear the pub’s punters before I could even see the building. Entering through the front door, you find yourself in the main bar area, with the servery directly opposite. This serves the public bar over to the left and a slightly redundant central space either side of the entrance, which is bare boarded and has a few comfy stools along a ledge in the front window bay – a great spot for people watching – but not much else of note, with most of the area given over to standing room. The left bar is carpeted and offers tables and chairs around an attractive tiled fireplace with an elaborately decorated mirror above. The walls are a mix of plain painted and crumbling exposed brickwork, and have mostly been left unadorned, although I did spot a muted TV screen in the front left corner. The bar has a counter with padded leather panels on the front, a traditional pot shelf with an old wireless set perched on the top, and a nice dark wood bar back. Moving through to the right, there is a bare boarded dining room with formal rows of tables and chairs plus a few button backed banquettes. Plain walls are the order of the day in here too and there’s a second tiled fireplace, also with an attractive mirror above. A jazz funk soundtrack was playing in the background, quietly enough to not make me want to run out of the pub screaming. The pub has made recent editions of the Good Beer Guide and had four cask ales available on this occasion – Surrey Hills Ranmore and Shere Drop and Twickenham Summer Sun and Noonsack. I opted for the latter, which came in at £4.70, was served in a correctly branded glass and turned out to be in absolute tip-top condition. I had a bit of a wait to get served, made worse when a second barman appeared and assumed I was already being served, so taking an order from a lady who’d just turned up – he was extremely apologetic when he realised his mistake though. This is a decent pub with a nice public bar that is a good place to relax with one of their extremely well-kept pints of ale. The other pubs nearby have either been opened out a lot or else focus a little too much on food, but this place still has a proper pub feel and would be my first choice when I’m next over on this side of the river.

Quite a dining room feel from the waxed floorboards, rows of tables and bentwood chairs with generally salubrious decor but drinkers still welcome. There is also a bay window area with stools opposite the var and a few tables on the pavement outside. They seem to look after their ales though, with one ready they weren't going to put on until they had cleaned through properly, which is always a good sign. Draught on this visit being Twickenham Naked Ladies, Surrey Hills Shere Drop and Oakham Citra.

A lovely (unique to my eyes) blue glazed faience tiled exterior leads to a very nice upmarket/off-beat interior but nicely done. L-shaped interior which is carpeted. The left spur has an alcove room with a fireplace, red velvet banquettes, exposed brick walls, books, ruched red ceiling billow and brewery mirrors. At the main bar there’s a strange button-back bar front, black velveteen flower ceiling wallpaper, newspapers, board games and TV cricket. Also not the collection of old transistor radios above the bar and the 1970’s era stylized music posters on the walls. To the right of the bar, behind a curtain, is a formal dining area. Five pumps with four on; Pride, Doom Bar, Twickenham Spring (very good) and Wimbledon Quartermaine IPA (decent). The atmosphere was enhanced by Nina Simone’s back catalogue being piped through. It’s an unusual place but we all rather enjoyed this one and I’d say it’s worth seeking out for the novelty value (plus decent beer as well). Others may violently take against it, though. 7.5