Willoughby Arms, North Kingston, Kingston Upon Thames

Randomness Guide to London - Willoughby Arms entry

Randomness Guide to London - Willoughby Arms entry

This cracking local's pub is located in the back streets of Kingston, without being too far from the town centre and train station. Entering via the front bar, three ales were visible including Greene King IPA and Surrey Hills Shere Drop. I ordered a pint of the latter from the friendly barmaid amidst a barrage of questions from the inquisitive and colourful locals. Having moved through to the sports bar in the next room I spotted a couple more pumps, this time with London Pride and Twickenham Spring Ale. The room was set up for the late afternoon match between Spurs and Chelsea, so all of the tables and chairs had been arranged to face the big screen at the front of the room. As mentioned by others below, this room hosts quite an amazing collection of sporting memorabilia including signed football shirts and boxing gloves, numerous trophies, framed photos, a replica of the World Cup trophy and to my delight, an AFC Bournemouth pendant hanging from the ceiling! A pool room can be reached from the rear of the sports bar and again there is plenty of interesting stuff on the walls including snooker and movie memorabilia. There was also access to a beer garden. This is a great community pub and well worth seeking out if you're in the Kingston area. I'll certainly be returning.

Finally here after years of trying to get to this fine old-fashioned boozer full of fine old-fashioned boozers. It's as good a community local as you'll get and shows what can be done with some imagination and of course a lot of hard work. If only the same could be said about so many other pubs in the area. A whole range of beers on for their current beer festival, I'm not going to list them as they'll doubtless be different next week but suffice it say all top notch stuff. A destination pub of course if beer is your thing but in any case the best bolt hole in town should you need to seek refuge from the nearby retail hell that is Kingston.

Having done the majority of my drinking apprenticeship in the pubs of Kingston, I was surprised that pub has remained anonymous to me but its occasional visit to our humble Top 40 and some large adverts in the London Drinker guide put me on a mission to partake in their services. From the outside, the pub is a bit disappointing with the windows and doors plastered with notices advertising the forthcoming football matches giving it a bit of a cheapo look. The interior looks much smaller than it does from outside due to the fact that there are several dividing walls. The 2 lounge areas are comfortable enough but animal campaigners should be warned - it looks like the result of a hunting expedition with several “trophys” on display. Above the well stocked bar are many of the certificates that have been awarded for the numerous guest beers, best garden, best drinking pub and so on. The larger sports bar is particularly worthy of attention, almost bordering on a museum. The walls are covered in signed football shirts (and we talking about the biggest names in the sport - Henry, Zidane, Zola, Rooney, Hurst, Davids and Kluivert are among those represented). There is also plenty of rugby and boxing memorabilia on show. There are plenty of seats with barrel tables and well positioned TVs and big screen. The adjoining pool room pays homage to showbiz and you can play pool in the company of Munroe, Bogart and Dean Martin amongst others. There is a real community feel about the place and they have regular live music, beer festivals, pool teams, darts teams and theme nights. Whilst not perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing of joints, they do offer pretty much all you can expect from a pub and praise must be given for their approach and the efforts that have transformed this place from what could otherwise be a rather dull and bland pub.

Large 1930's pub closed in 2005 and demolished. Appartments now on the site.

There were “only” three ales on during my midweek visit – London Pride; GKIPA; and Twickenham Autumn Blaze. I went for the Autumn Blaze (of course) and it was pretty good, and at £3.20 a pint the norm I suppose. This pub had the sort of lived in look that could be mistaken for slovenliness, but I prefer to regard it as a traditional pub character of the sort achieved effortlessly by pubs like the Wenlock Arms. There really is nothing fancy about this place. One disconcerting thing was the array of stuffed animal heads on the walls, one of which (a sow I think) had been accorded the appellation “Charlotte” by some wag, and another (a moose or large elk) had more worryingly been given the name “Rex”. There was what might be described as a sports bar on the right. It is obviously a dog friendly pub, as a mongrel looking (my apologies if he really has a pedigree!) specimen obviously found me an object of interest as he liked to put his paws on my knees. But he was well behaved. I really liked this pub and will no doubt pay a return visit, but I have to say that for a pub that has won so many awards, three ales, including two of the usual suspects, is not brilliant.

The Willoughby Arms site with beer festival details - Official site

The Willoughby Arms site with beer festival details - Official site