The Duke Of York, Acton, W3

Another Acton pub with a cupola, which has undergone a refit recently and was previously a bit of a rum place, according to some reports. On approach, I could make out several red, blue and green flashing lights within and on entering, I found myself in a room which looked like a tropical Hawaiian nightmare, except that Hawaii isn’t home to gorillas, a statue of which was guarding the door. This seemed to be the main bar area, with an array of fizz, no furniture, no drinkers and no barman. I stuck my head round the back to where all the action was and seeing that not only was this definitely not my type of place, I’m definitely not its type of customer, so I was off.

I'm a big fan of good old fashioned boozers so I was always going to like it in here. I found the barmaid to be very friendly and my pint of Pride was good. Old Speckled Hen was also available alongside standard lagers and some draught bitters. There are a couple of plasma screens and the pub shows Sky Sports and Setanta. There is a dartboard around the side of the bar heading out towards the paved area out the back that has some covered and uncovered seating. I would go back here again if in the area.