The Prince of Wales, Twickenham

Formerly a coaching inn, this is a former Watney’s house, dating from the mid-19th century though probably rebuilt. The interior is simple: bare boarded, a white colour scheme, conventional tall or normal furniture; the only item of note is the bare brick fireplace. Décor takes the form of much rugby-themed memorabilia, miscellaneous prints and the bar array is woody. Customers were few – perhaps more in the garden on my 8.40pm Tuesday visit – and a resolutely older blokey bunch at that, none watching the football, commentary dominating the diegetic ambience. Aside from two unused pumps, the cask front amounted to just Wainwright Gold and Tribute, £2.40 a half and in decent nick, served by a friendly barman. The pub is adequate, nothing more; the neighbouring Rifleman is preferable, always assuming you can overcome the pull of the tractor beam emanating from 15 Staines Road…

Newish landlord in place; a friendly chap who seems to know his stuff. Minor decor changes - sofas out replaced by wooden tables which makes it more in keeping with the bare boarded "proper" pub feel of the place. Boltmaker, Pedigree, Brakspears (hooray!) and Hophead during my most recent visit. Brakspears and Pedigree both sampled and in fine shape. Now represents good competition for the excellent Rifleman which is nearby.

Very much a basic locals pub and although it has eight or nine handpumps only four beers were on suggesting they don't get the ale turnover to support the full compliment,my pint of Cottage Golden Arrow was fine though. Well described below I found the pub friendly enough but not particularly appealing.I would call in if passing but wouldnt go out of my way.

Located on Hampton Road, just a five minute or so walk from Strawberry Hill station, this is a reasonably sized pub with a large, U-shaped main bar area. A porch at the front of the pub takes you up a couple of steps into a narrow front section with the bar directly opposite. The horseshoe shaped servery has a compact bar back lined with some nice spirit barrels. To the right is a spacious seating area with plenty of button backed sofas which create quite a relaxed feel, somewhat out of kilter with the rugby theme on show, which includes several signed Australia shirts - a bit weird given the proximity of the home of English rugby. A TV was showing a muted Spanish football fixture and the décor was rounded out by a few bit of breweriana and a juke box. Over on the left hand side, there is a large bay window at the front with plenty of standard seating in front of it and a brick fireplace to one side, covered in horse brasses and stood underneath a huge mirror. There are a number of brewery mirrors on show, as well as a second TV screen and moving towards the left rear, more breweriana appears, as does a nice stone fireplace. There is plenty of additional seating back here and apparently a second room can be reached from this side, although I must've missed it. I did notice a door leading out to a very green looking garden, where a few punters were catching the last rays of the day. There were quite a few people in when I visited, but there wasn't much of an atmosphere, with most people glued to the TV screens whilst music played quietly in the background. This was off-set somewhat by a decent ale line-up, which offered Banks's Cereal Thriller, Brakspear Bitter, Twickenham Redhead and Adnams Ghost Ship, with four more pumps left unclipped. A fairly mainstream keg range included Thatcher's Gold Cider. I tried a pint of the Cereal Thriller, having been offered a taster by the friendly barmaid, and I thought it was in reasonably good condition. I quite liked the feel of this pub and thought it was a shame that the atmosphere was a bit flat on this occasion. The prospect of an interesting pint makes this a worthy addition to a crawl of the local area and I would happily return to see if things have livened up a bit.

Horse brasses,steins,un-origonal pub mirrors and signed shirts are all things that I dislike about pubs. Still they have 9 handpumps but only 4 beers were on. Sky football dominates the side room. Decent beers though with Proper Job,Ghost ship and my Twickenham-Red Head.Nice big beer garden.

There were five ales on here when we visited on Tuesday, with none of the usual suspects present. I had an excellent pint of Cottage Brewery Somerset and Dorset. I also noted Jenning’s Sneck Lifter and Twickenham Sundancer. A two pint round cost £6.40, so an average of £3.20 a pint. I didn’t see any menus, but in any case I would guess that we arrived too late for the kitchen to be still open. They have their full quota of sofas in the front area of the pub, but there are more standard furnishings around to the left of the bar counter, leading to a separate room at the back reached through an open door containing more normal tables and chairs. The walls are covered with prints and mirrors – I spotted Double Diamond and Guinness brewery mirrors, and in the room at the back was a wooden advertising board with figures in relief, extolling the virtues of Fred “Sureshot” Davies’ tuition in snooker and billiards. A couple of nice exposed brick fireplaces complete the aesthetic theme, one of which had the traditional accompaniment of horse brasses and a large round brass tray. It was fairly busy in here, but that could be because they were showing (of course) the England v Ukraine game – or it could be because it’s a really good pub. In any case, I was impressed by the excellent ale selection, and will certainly pay a return visit if I’m in the area again.

Situated just a bit further down from the Prince Albert, the Prince Of Wales still bears outside the round green stag sign reminding us that it was a former Watney Combe Reid pub. A narrowish area in front of the bar counter is flanked by two distinct areas on either side. The public bar area on the right has a rather modern feel and has pine flooring. There's some rugby memorabilia and a largish TV screen. On the left is a more comfortable saloon bar area which is also bare boarded, but has a characterful fireplace with some horse brasses and, further down, a seating area with burgundy painted walls and some old brewery mirrors, including Wethereds, Watneys, Double Diamond etc. Further behind this area is a room that can be booked for functions. It was formerly a restaurant - "Le Petit Prince" - specialising in, believe it or not, French dishes. At the side of the pub is a pleasant garden - looking noticeably well-tended compared with what I remember from earlier visits. On the real ale front, the pub is a keen supporter of the local Twickenham Brewery and usually offers two Twickenham beers. On my last couple of visits, these have been in good form, as has St Austells Proper Job. The pub has won local CAMRA branch awards and is a Good Beer Guide regular. The pub interior feels a bit bright and modern for my liking, particularly the area on the right - the CAMRA Good Beer Guide description of it as "unspoilt" is rather off beam - but, with this pub being the unofficial Twickenham Brewery tap, you may think it's worth calling in to sample their beers.

Randomness Guide to London - Prince Of Wales entry

Randomness Guide to London - Prince Of Wales entry

A fairly ordinary no frills pub but serving good beer. The local Twickenham Spring Ale and Sundowner plus Cornish St Austell Tribute and Sharps Doombar on today. One room with a central horseshoe bar, TV on for the ubiquitous rugby. Traditional table and chair seating plus a couple of Chesterfield type sofas, and a fireplace adorned with horse brasses which together with the pub mirrors add a bit of a retro feel to this 40 something correspondent.