White Hart, Acton, W3

Official site of White Hart - whitehartacton.com

Official site of White Hart - whitehartacton.com

Originally the White Hart, this is a former Truman’s pub, with fine faience tiling to the ground floor and the brewer’s name in gold lettering to the first floor, further mentioned to the side gables, meaning that it was probably rebuilt in the 1930s and in all probability to the designs of their inhouse architect, A. E. Sewell. The left-hand side of the pub features a modern dark boarded floor, then a stripped-out grey interior, featureless bar back, industrial lighting with furniture of scrubbed tables, then plywood and tubular steel chairs, the whole looking a bit like a student union bar; what you won’t find in a student union bar though, is a balloonist’s basket and also an aeroplane’s propellor bolted to a wall; what you definitely won’t see anywhere else is a functioning photo booth. The right-hand side is the more unusual, done up like a circus big top, with some tiered seating. It’s here that a cornucopia of entertainment take place, such as disco, drag cabaret and even circus acts, which can be seen on their website. The place was fairly well attended for a Friday night, with most customers being young and studenty, perhaps attracted by the chairs. Sadly, there’s no cask here anymore, with four forlorn unused pumps, a half of Gamma Ray at a stiff £3.60, served by a friendly barman. There’s certainly something different here and hats off to that, but it offers neither a traditional pub experience nor cask beer, so now I’ve seen it, there’s no need to return to the Aeronaut, but it gets a ‘5’ for daring to be different; perhaps this sort of thing will take off?