Duke on the Green, Parsons Green, SW6

This is a Young’s house, which had on Bitter, Special and London Gold. The Bitter was a reasonable £3 a pint as I recall. I was in too late to see a lunch menu, but there was a bar snacks menu on the tables during my late afternoon visit, offering such delicacies as home made pork crackling (£3), scotch eggs (£3.50), and home baked foccacia pizza slabs (£9.95). This is another magnificent Victorian edifice, complete with brown marble pillars outside, but which has been completely made over inside. There are numerous doors leading to the street, most not in use now, which tell us of its erstwhile multi room format. But in one corner there remains a large area of some magnificent original tiling, which Young’s must value as there are back lit photographs of the most impressive detail on the bar back. At one time this would have been a magnificent example of an extravagant Victorian “gin place”, but now (apart from the tiling) it’s really nothing very special. There are loads of tall tables/stools, although to be honest there are sufficient normal tables and chairs. It’s worth popping in to have a butcher’s at the tiling if you like that sort of thing, and although it’s an “OK” pub, otherwise not really worth going out of your way for.