The Royal Horse Guardsman, Brentford

A single room corner pub that still manages to fit in no less than six screens half of them on different sports. Traditional and apart from the screens and machines, new floors, reupholstered banquette seating and sympathetic arts nouveau new windows it’s quite original, I’m not being mean because it’s nicely done. Beer wise there’s a competently kept cask from Windsor & Eton plus a couple of T-bars of usual suspects including the getting rarer John Smith’s Smooth (crap) and a solo Guinness. The riot of screens seems to promote a rash of remotes on one end of the bar and beside them are various phone charging cables. A curious mix of old and new.

An unusual-looking building inasmuch as it stands out on its corner plot with its two storeys quite differently from anything else around. Also, "McNaboe's" is painted on the Albany Road side fascia. Unashamedly Irish, I walked over the mosaic entrance floor stating "Ashby Ales" into an almost sea of green and white hooped shirts (the Auld Firm Derby had taken place earlier) and two large TV screens showing a Gaelic Football game at Croke Park. As mentioned below, there was a solitary ale - Windsor & Eton Guardsman (£3.90 a pint and decent) and there was some Irish-related paraphernalia inside and out - as well as a semi-lean-to outside which houses a dartboard. A patio garden had a further TV, semi-shielded by a wooden construction which screened a PL match. Friendly service and no stares from the locals which I was expecting but perhaps they were either pleased in the knowledge Celtic had won earlier in the day as well as being too wrapped up in the GAA match. Still, the pleasant barmaid bade me a farewell, so I left happy.

They've introduced a regular real ale here in keeping with the pub's name - Windsor & Eton Brewery's Guardsman (£1.90 a half), which seems an inspired choice to me. It was in acceptable condition, although not top notch. I didn't see any sign of of food on our midweek afternoon visit. This is still very much a locals' pub. The Irish influence is very much in evidence, with Irish accents predominating among the drinkers in there. There were two TVs on, one showing the racing of course and the other (muted) showing a sports channel. The fireplace on the right had a wood fire alight, and on the chimney breast above it was an old black and white photograph of Croke Park from 1938. An interesting internal feature is the old glazed brown tiling up to dado rail level, of the type that is usually seen on the exteriors of pubs. The leaded light glazing is still there, but I missed the glazing bearing the pub's name that is mentioned by previous reviewers. At least I hope I just missed it and it's still there. Even a pub as small as this one would have had at least two rooms in days past (and possibly a jug & bottle bar) judging by the three doors in evidence. There's a surprisingly large garden at the back. This struck me as a friendly and comfortable pub. I would happily pay a return visit to this one.

I popped into the Royal Horse Guardsman early on Saturday afternoon and found it to be just as small as I remember. It made me laugh when I saw a Shoot annual from 1999 on the side as this was around the time of my last visit. During my absence this pub has spent some years closed so it was nice to find it open. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that I recognised the Irish governor from the New Inn when I was a regular visitor during Bees home fixtures back in the early nineties. This is a football pub and a plasma above the real coal fire was showing Spurs v Newcastle and the plasma on the wall by the entrance was showing a muted SPL match. There is another plasma screen at the rear of the beer garden and this was showing the SPL game with sound. The bar is stocked with standard draught and I only spotted one hand pump that was drawing Courage Best. This is a friendly enough local's pub that I'd have no problem returning to if local.