The Prince Alfred, W9

A fairly grand imposing building on a corner site, the exterior retains a few of the pendant lamps that are similar to those at the nearby Warwick Castle. The frontage has attractive Victorian curved windows with etched glass designed to maximise light. The entrance retains superbly preserved tiling which continues along the side wall once inside, indicating possibly this was once a passage. The interior is just as impressive with the island bar seperated into different areas with the wooden partitions linked by a series of tiny access doors. The bar back is unusually free standing, but there is plenty of carved detail to catch the eye, and the clock over the bar has the pub name at the bottom. A lot of traditional seating but unfortunately a row of those high tables and stools which add little to the surrounding character of the pub. The rear area is known as The Formosa Dining Rooms, and is in contrast to the Victorian splendour of the bar areas, being modern, minimalist and frankly a thoughtless alteration to such a well preserved building. The beer range was nothing special at all, just Young's Ordinary and Bombardier, plus an Addlestones Cider. The Alfred is worth a visit certainly for some of the architecture, but it felt to me as if it was unsure of direction, with one foot firmly in the traditional pub corner but the other straying into modern trendy gastro.

This is an extremely impressive pub, occupying a large corner site. It was an Allied Breweries (Ind Coope) pub in former days. Just about all of the original Victorian features have been retained, including the partitions between the bars, with the small openings allowing movement between the bars that are ideal for the vertically challenged drinker. All of the compartments would have originally been accessible from the street, with small doors between the different bars put in to make the job of cleaning easier. The curved, etched windows are better than anything else that I have seen in London. There is a large restaurant at the back, but I didn’t eat there, and didn’t see anyone else eating there either. Real ales on offer were Young’s Bitter and Bombardier. The Young’s was fine. Definitely worth a visit to see some of the best surviving examples of late Victorian pub fitting.