The Prince Albert, Twickenham

Dating from 1840, the pub was refurbished in 2016 in the typical Fuller’s style, still sporting its lovely green glazed exterior tiles. The interior is modern boarded with a tiled bar apron, the bar array being fake Victorian. There’s natural wood wainscoting, then magnolia walls and modern Victorian-style etched glass pane dividers. Furniture is traditional with décor in the form of miscellaneous prints and pot plants, customers being local and older, younger customers mainly outside. One of two Fuller’s houses in the vicinity, with just an anonymous ‘guest’ ale, then Pride and ESB, sweet, malty and £2.95 a half, served by a vacant barman. This pub is ok and would be improved with the Dark Star option, but the Rifleman next door is the better bet, better still, the Sussex Arms being close at hand.

Official site of The Prince Albert - www.princealberttwickenham.co.uk

Official site of The Prince Albert - www.princealberttwickenham.co.uk

Situated on one of the main roads into Twickenham, this is a nice traditional Fullers pub, which has been opened out a little from a former multiple-room layout, but still retains enough character to make it a pleasant drinking environment. You enter through a front door with a nice ‘Public Bar’ etched glass pane, into a main bar area which is all scuffed floorboards, low tongue and groove panelled walls and staple shaped servery. The bar has a cool, cantilevered counter with a patterned tile strip of floor around it, and a partially chopped out bar back with a few old etched glass mirrors still thankfully in situ. Small fireplaces to the front left and further back to the right, both have plain mirrors above them and add to the traditional feel of this main bar area. Tables and chairs fill much of the space around the bar and to the front, with some short benches and high stools in support, including plenty of bar stools around the pleasant curved far end of the bar counter. The walls have been liberally decorated with random pictures, including lots of the eponymous Prince, plenty of butterflies and fish, and some more esoteric stuff. TV screens were showing a muted sports channel which was broadcasting a hurling fixture when I left, but there was no music playing. Beyond the bar, there is a similarly decorated space with lots of standard seating that looks like a typical dining area. This space is partially screened from the bar by a sizeable section of retained partitioning wall. The area has a quarry stone floor, with button backed banquettes down one side and a small kitchen serving area to the rear left, that seemed to be dishing up Thai food. Beyond, is a huge rear garden with loads of extra seating extending a significant way back, with some shelter available. A door opposite the bar takes you out to a fully covered side garden with more seating and atmospheric lighting, and I think I saw a TV out here showing the hurling too. There were four cask ales to choose from on the bar – Fullers London Pride, ESB, Oliver’s Island and Sunquake – whilst a real cider option took up another of the handpulls. The Sunquake clocked in at £5.40 for a pint and went down pretty well, despite not exactly being my favourite Fuller’s seasonal. The barman was very nice and there was a good crowd in, but spread across all parts of the pub and garden, so that it never felt that busy after all. I liked this one, which felt like a decent compromise between the traditional pub it used to be, and Fuller’s vision of what a modern pub should look like. I spent most of my visit in the front bar area, which had a nice feel to it and was preferable to the more food-led rear part of the pub, whilst the garden looked like a winner for summer months. Plenty to recommend here, should you find yourself in this part of town.

Nicely restored in traditional style, with much woodwork and tastefully-decorated cream walls in the front bar, where a couple of large TV screens show sport, but quite unobtrusively unless there is a big match on. A small lounge part behind leads through to a large and smart dining area. Outside, there is a small enclosed patio at the front, and a very large tabled patio garden at the back. Two repeated banks of handpumps offered Fullers ESB, London Pride, Oliver's Island and Fresh Tracks, a seasonal white IPA.

Suburban Fullers outlet with impressive exterior green tiling. A long and L-shaped interior done in a fairly traditional ‘cosy locals’ pub style (pub carpet, wood panelling etc), augmented by faux-sodium lighting. Impressively busy on our visit. Three on from the Chiswick stable; Pride, ESB and a decent half of Olivers. Ate here and the Thai food was very good as well as being competitively-priced for the area. A solid little pub that I’d have no trouble returning to. 7.5

This pub looks very impressive from the outside, with its original green tiling and festooned with abundant hanging baskets. Someone has gone to considerable effort to make this pub look attractive. Being a Fuller’s house you’ll have a good idea of the ales that are going to be available. When I was in they had on Pride, Chiswick, Discovery and ESB. I went for the less regularly seen Chiswick, which is one of the better session beers in my opinion, for the pretty average price of £3.10 a pint. The food on offer is Thai, which is available in a restaurant (with at least one Thai waitress in national dress that I saw) that is an extension at the back on the right of the building. The interior of the pub has been knocked through now of course, but it’s anything but a drinking barn, with a comfortable sitting area as you enter the pub, and the bar counter on the left with further drinking areas stretching back to the right. Most of the pub is carpeted, but with a smallish flagstoned area just before you reach the Thai restaurant. Furnishings are normal tables and chairs, and with the front area retaining some attractive panelling on the walls. There is some outside seating to the right of the pub, in front of the Thai restaurant. There were TVs on the walls showing the cricket, but muted, and the necessary evil of fruit machines was present. Late afternoon on Wednesday there were a handful of apparent local regulars in there, some of whom were in an intelligent discussion as to what to do with rioters. This struck me as the sort of pub where you could drop in for a pint or two and have a chat. It’s certainly worth stopping off here for a pint to break the journey from the Sussex Arms to Strawberry Hill Station. I’ll be happy to stop here for another pint sometime.