The Forester, West Ealing, W13

A terrific 3* CAMRA heritage pub,ornate and attractive exterior and retaining an original four room interior layout,it was a pleasure to visit.Run by Fullers but offering genuine guest ales.There is a seperate public bar to the right side,a lounge with a roaring fire joined to another lounge via an arch ,both with serveries,then a small rear dining room but far more plain than the rest of the pub with it's pine furniture. The internal detailing is impressive,leaded upper windows,fine carved wood features,panelling,original doors and the opulent curved windows.The furniture is rather more basic but can be forgiven.There is a regular Wednesday quiz and poker on Thursdays while the food comes from a Thai kitchen. On the way in there were notices saying that due to a cellar flood there would be no real ale,which was honest enough.The clips would have offered Pride,ESB and Hophead with guests Salopian Darwins Origin ,Siren Breakfast Stout and Old Rosie cider ,a range of drinks that I would have happily sampled fully.I made do with a Beavertown Neck Oil. This pub is in a well to do area,but is popular with a wide cross section of society,It's a destination pub that should not be missed when in the area.I would certaily use it again.

Striking externally and overlooking a small park, this is yet another pub designed in 1909 by architect Thomas Henry Nowell Parr, for the Royal Brewery, Brentford. It’s grade II-listed and cited on CAMRA’s inventory of pubs with historic interiors, this being of National Importance. For once, CAMRA’s pictures do the pub some sort of justice; it’s certainly spectacular, but not the most opulent pub I’ve been in, the interior somewhat sullied by unnecessarily ugly World Cup ‘family of nations’ bunting; the snooker (unwatched) on TV added an ugly lighting quality to proceedings, in a very full pub, punters perhaps drawn in by the quiz; who on Earth holds a quiz on a Friday? The whole point of this type of thing is to pull in customers on days when business is slow. Service was a bit surly and the beer choice was poor, expectations let down by Fuller’s stupid pump handles, with clips that can’t be reversed, meaning that the choices of Dark Star Hophead or APA were off, the remaining selection of little appeal, with a half of Red Fox coming in at a whopping £3.00, an insult considering that two days earlier a half of Moor Stout (5% ABV) was £2.65 at the Star in Belgravia (also a Fuller’s pub); it was also in pretty lacklustre condition too. This is a pretty pub, but it’s a pretty average pub experience, let down by some of the highest prices in London and an all-pervasive sporting intrusion. Having now seen it, I don’t envisage a return; the superior Grosvenor is a short walk over the border in W7.

Tucked away in the backstreets of Ealing, the Forester is a fabulous example of a multiple room Edwardian pub that was originally built for the Royal Brewery of Brentford. The pub is quite striking on appearance thanks to large gables and a smart green glazed brick tiled exterior. Entering the left-hand side of the pub, you find an attractive room with bare floorboards, a nice original servery with curved counter to the right and mixed seating throughout including regular tables and chairs through the middle of the room, banquettes under the front bay windows and some high tables and stools to the right. Nice wood panelling lines most of the wall space throughout the room and there is an attractive original brick fireplace to the rear. Plenty of stained glass has been used to add some colour to a room otherwise dominated by dark wood, with nice panes in the front windows and above the impressively ornate doorways that lead you through to other rooms. The smaller centre room has long tables in front of the rear servery, with a glazed tile fireplace to one side, a TV screen showing muted cricket and a mightily impressive bar back with plenty of decorative features, which backs onto a central, enclosed manager’s office. A final front room to the far right has minimal seating and more of a public bar feel to it. This pub apparently has the distinction of being the only pub in London with bell pushes for table service still in situ, although the place was so busy, I failed to spot them. The rear part of the pub, accessed from the left-hand room, has been set up as a large restaurant dining space with modern wallpaper, lots of standard tables and chairs throughout and a carvery station to the rear left. This in turn leads out to a sizable patio garden with loads of picnic benches and a couple of small gazebo-style shelters. There are also a few benches out the front too, which allow you to get a close-up view of the polished granite columns and glazed tiles on the façade. The pub is operated by Fullers, so unsurprisingly their beers are to the fore on the handpulls, with London Pride, ESB, Gales Seafarers and Dark Star Hophead all available along with a guest of Adnams Mosaic. A sixth handpull was left unclipped and I ended up trying a pint of the Hophead, which was in decent enough shape. The pub was very busy on a Sunday afternoon, with many people eating and plenty more enjoying the cricket in the front rooms. This is a very attractive pub that merits a visit to explore the fine Edwardian interior which has been relatively well preserved over the years. I certainly enjoyed snooping around the place, although I suspect I would’ve enjoyed it even more at a slightly quieter time outside peak food-service hours. One of a number of fine pubs in the backstreets between Ealing and Hanwell which lend themselves to a good crawl.

Well worth visiting for the interior.Very well kept beer with a manager who is keen to for the pub to be known for good beer.Nice sunday roast as well.Already had one beer fest so lets hope for more.

Official site of The Forester - www.theforesterealing.com

Official site of The Forester - www.theforesterealing.com

At the weekend I paid my first visit to this pub since its recent refurbishment and change of management. The maginificent Edwardian interior remains unchanged of course, and the refurbishment’s main effect seems to be have cleaned the place up a bit. But the carpet’s now gone, the flooring is now modern replacement boards, and the furnishings have been re-arranged a bit. However, the two main changes are the fact that the Public Bar on the right has been brought back into use (revealing the original wood panelling) and (last but definitely not least) the ale range has been improved considerably with Forty-Niner, Young’s Gold, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Sambrook’s Wandle and Twickenham Original on. With the archectural heritage coupled with a very good ale range, I would now regard this as a destination pub.