Windsor Castle, W8

This is a great pub, full of character, quite quirky, and a welcome respite from the nearby hustle and bustle. For me the best bit is the "doorways" between each bar area. The one through in to the small left hand bar (visible in Photo 2, above) can't be any more than about five feet tall, and there's a considerable step you have to climb over as well. The doorway in to the rear bar, is even smaller, around four feet I would guess! As I said, quirky. Fortunately the bar counter runs round the corner to all three rooms, so you don't have to negotiate these obstacles whilst carrying a round of drinks. Besides that it's got some great wood paneling, a real feel of history to the place (it dates from the 1600's), church pews to sit in, a decent sized beer garden with some covered seating and patio heaters, and a decent, reasonably priced "pub grub" menu. What more could you want from a pub? Beer choice was Doom Bar, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Adnams IPA, Caledonian Over the Bar and London Pride. Also an equally extensive choice of ciders which I was pleased to see - Weston's Scrumpy, Weston's Vintage, Weston's Old Rosie, Addlestones and Aspall's Suffolk cyder. Well worth a visit.

Official site of the Windsor Castle, contains menus - thewindsorcastlekensington.co.uk

Official site of the Windsor Castle, contains menus - thewindsorcastlekensington.co.uk

I don’t need to add much to Maldenman’s description. It features in CAMRA’s book “The Inside Story”, highlighting the London pubs with interiors that are most worthy of preservation. It’s in there because of its multi-room format, with original (mainly inter-war) panelling. Having endured listening to some fool bellow into his mobile for the duration of my visit, I can sympathise with pubs (such as the Nag’s Head in Kinnerton St) that ban the use of the things. But for all that it’s a very good pub, fool of character and an olde worlde charm about it. I would be happy to visit again.

A splendid pub, the internal layout still consists of a series of interconnected rooms, a couple of which still have the very small doorways cut through the wooden partitions between. The place has a rustic feel in some ways and you could be forgiven for forgetting you are in a busy Inner London suburb. The dark red ceiling is fairly low with lanterns suspended from it, floors are wooden, the panelling is decorated with occasional old pictures and a large Victorian OS map of the area, and there are copper and brass fixtures, I also spotted a pair of pistols. Seating is traditional being mainly small settles and basic wooden benches. A more ornate bench in a side room has some carved inscription relating to King Harold, but I'm unaware of any significance of this. To the rear is a pleasant walled garden. Four handpumps in the main(front) room had Ushers 1824, Shepherd Neame Early Bird, Tim Taylor's Landlord and Adnam's Stout. Pride and a couple of ciders were also available from pumps in the adjacent side room. All pints served to us were in jugs, fine with me, but I expect the option is there to request a straight glass. Pleasant and friendly service.