The Clarence, West Kensington, W14

This pub is definitely a local’s pub and quite a difference to the other two pubs visited this evening on North End Road. As described below bet felt like a bit of a turn around compared to Rex’s review of almost 11 years ago.Indeed the uncarpeted Saloon bar was heaving with locals girding their loins for a bingo night. The lady, I assume the landlady, was really pumping up the water nervy in the venue. I managed to squeeze in at a table around the back of the bar. I had accessed this part of North End Road. The rear Public bar that was carpeted and housed the unused pool table still was totally empty. There was a lot of Chelsea FC memorabilia on the walls in the Saloon bar at least. Quaffs wise there was clearly no cask so it was a straight coin toss between John Smiths or Guinness for me as the remainder of the taps offered a small range of lagers. It came up tails and so it was JS for me. I appreciated the energy of the venue but it can’t be rated more than an average 5 given the beer offering.

This is still a fairly large pub that still retains its original and classic two-room format. The main entrance now takes you into what was once a snug, but which has now been incorporated into what used to be the Public Bar. The Public Bar’s original doors on the corner are now unused. This room is carpeted, has a pool table in the middle of the room and is furnished with normal tables and chairs. There’s a fair bit of interesting decor in here, the most unusual being numerous stuffed fish mounted in glass cases on a shelf at the top of the walls. The other room used to be the Saloon Bar and can only be accessed by doors in the side street - or via the doorway leading to the gents. Apparently this room only gets used when the pub gets busy (typically in the evenings), but as I was the only customer in on Wednesday afternoon the friendly landlady gave me the guided tour. This room is bare-boarded and seemed to me a bit more Spartan than the old Public Bar, which is a role reversal of sorts. All the windows have some rather nice leaded lights glazing. As much as I like this pub, having no real ale is a great shame (just keg John Smith's being available). There is presumably no call for it, as there is presumably no call for food on weekday lunchtimes. This looks like a pub that has seen much better days and I guess is kept going by loyal regulars, although none were in when I visited. It struck me as the sort of friendly pub that would have loyal regulars. If it had a real ale on I would up its rating a couple of notches.