The Royal Horse Guardsman, Brentford

Re-opened less than a fortnight ago after a period of closure exceeding three years, The Royal Horse Guardsman is a small single bar street corner pub close to Brentford football ground. Notably for a newly re-opened pub and contrary to what one might have reasonably expected, on my recent Sunday afternoon visit there was no sandwich board or notice outside advertising the recent re-opening. Were it not for the local CAMRA branch reporting the re-opening, the casual passer by might well conclude that the pub was still closed. It’s very much a locals pub and, despite only being open for a week or so, most of the regulars pre closure had quickly returned, according to the friendly Irish landlord. Externally, the pub retains evidence of its former days as a Courage pub and a floor mosaic by the entrance denoting Ashby Ales reflects even earlier ownership. Inside, the small single bar manages to find room for 3 smallish televisions – one was showing Bolton v Blackburn, one was showing horse racing and the third, behind the bar, was showing Aussie rules football. Horse racing appears to be the favoured sport of the locals and betting slips are available on a shelf for customers to complete before popping across the road to the local Corals. Despite the bare boards, the interior is comfortable , if somewhat devoid of character, although some etched glass windows bearing the pub name add a bit of cosiness. Disappointingly, I didn’t see anything that might have revealed the history of the pub and the background behind its name I’m probably going to upset someone by saying this, but, in common with most Brentford pubs, there’s a rather working class ambience to the place. Beers on were Courage Best and Batemans Rosey Nosey, both on reasonable form. However, the pub regulars do not appear to be real ale drinkers and I do wonder whether real ale will continue to be available here in the long term. There’s no food, although free hot roast potatoes on the bar when I visited were a nice touch. In these days of numerous pub closures and conversions to alternative use, it’s nice to see a pub bucking the trend and re-opening after a long period of closure- and now selling real ale to boot ( which it didn’t previously ) and I wish the pub well. However, there are more established pubs in Brentford selling a wider variety of real ale and, in all honesty, the Royal Horse Guardsman is not presently one of my top recommendations for the first time visitor to Brentford’s pubs.