The Queen Adelaide, Shepherds Bush, W12

This is a fairly attractive street corner pub, stood on the main road between Acton and Shepherds Bush. The pub clearly once had a multiple room layout, but has now been much knocked through, leaving an island servery, around which various seating areas have been arranged. The room is bare boarded throughout, with large lattice windows to the front and right with standard tables and chairs under fairy lights at the front and low stools along the right-hand wall. The front left part of the room has been given over to an open kitchen, but further back there are more tables and chairs, arranged in a dining room layout, whilst to the rear right, some comfier lounge seating options looked like the best spot to bag a seat. The servery has a decent panelled counter front, but the opening up of the room has resulted in the bar back being pretty much entirely ripped out, leaving a central support column and a redundant doorway as the sole clues to the former set-up. The two rear spaces are definitely the nicest, enhanced by beautiful wall paintings, some huge portraits and various other art prints, plus a couple of fireplaces, one of which is set into a smart alcove, and each with a dark wood surround and plain mirrors above. To the left, there is a pleasant skylight with a nice chandelier hung from it. The ale range here was a bit of a let-down, with two pumps clipped for Greene King IPA, whilst two others had ‘Coming Soon’ signs attached to Abbot Ale badges. I was served by a rather brusque barman, who slopped up a pint of the IPA, or at least something approximating a pint – were it not so busy, I’d have likely asked for a top-up. The beer was in decent enough shape but isn’t something I’d want to have to have a session on. I found this a nicely presented pub that let itself down with a poor ale range, surly service and a knocked about interior, but for all that, I still quite liked the place and thought it still had a fair bit of character and some good, well differentiated seating areas that would be good to settle down in. There are no obvious stand-out pubs along this stretch of the Uxbridge Road, and this seems as good as any for a quick pitstop.

This is an early Victorian pub, rebuilt in 1895 and currently under the stewardship of Greene King. The exterior exhibits fine faience tiling to the ground floor, in a smoky green shade with an oriel window to the corner; clearly this was probably once some sort of gin palace, but there’s no trace of that now, just an attractive alcove surrounding a fireplace to the left, with an ugly open kitchen in front of it. Otherwise, it’s a bit of a fake Victorian rehash, with a central bar, modern wood floor, some bare wood panelling and Victorian-style chandeliers and sconces. Customers were few in number, in their mid-20s and harmless enough. There were four pumps with clips reversed, so it was a Neck Oil at £3.15 the half, served by a friendly barmaid. This isn’t a bad place as far as the area goes, but I would prefer the Princess Victoria up the road. Still, it’s a far cry from the Coningham Arms, almost opposite.

Official site of The Queen Adelaide - www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk

Official site of The Queen Adelaide - www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk

This is a magnificent old pub down the Uxbridge Rd. Some excellent original faience tiling remains, as well as a detailed terracotta frieze with the name of the pub set into it. It looks very impressive. Inside it's been largely opened up of course, but there are one or two heritage features remaining. There's a central island servery with a large bar area to the front and left of it; an open to view kitchen at the back on the left, and a dining room at the back on the right, reached via an entrance with some concertina screening. Both the bar and the dining room contain rather ornate fireplaces, with wood (or perhaps wood effect) pillars to either side. The one in the bar has some nice tiling surrounds as well. The bar counter looks original as well, and there remains three entrance vestibules. There's a clutch of sofas in front of the fireplace in the bar area of course, but the majority of furnishings are banquettes and normal tables and chairs. It was comfortable enough for me. The dining room has a skylight at the back, indicating that it might well have been a billiards room in a previous incarnation. There a few seats out at the front, separated from the pavement by a bit of screening, but inevitably too close to the busy Uxbridge Road to be very relaxing. Now to the beers. There were three real ales on with a fourth pump having a reversed clip. GK IPA, Jurassic Brewhouse Citrus Maximus (the clue is in the citrus - it's a lemon beer) were available, but swerving that pair I went for the tried and tested Harvey's Best (£2.05 a half). It's a bit gastro in here of course, but not ridiulously so in my view. "Small dishes" range from £6.50 for the gammon, egg and chips, to £9.50 for the steak sandwich. Main course are from £10 for the Cumberland sausage and chips, to £16 for the Angus flat iron steak, etc, etc. A note at the foot at the menu warns customers that a (discretionary) 12.5% service charge applies in the table serviced areas (presumably in the dining room). Even though it's not the sort of cosy pub that I prefer, and even though it's large and opened up, I still really liked it in here. It's easily large enough to sustain both a bar area and a dining room. It wasn't particularly busy mid-afternoon on a Thursday, I had a comfortable seat by the window, and my half of Harvey's was just fine. I would be happy to return.