Kings Head, Roehampton, SW15

Visited 01/08/24 Large Youngs pub with extensive outside space with the beer garden to the busy main road end of the pub having some huts to retreat into if the weather turns. During my late afternoon visit that was a couple of hours away still! Inside was heavily styled, can imagine if, heaven forbid, someone spilt their drink or even worse broke their glass it would be mopped / cleaned up with ruthless efficiency. So lots of polished wood, dark wall coluring, masses pictures / prints / photographs on walls. Food serving hatch to left of bar which is against back wall, so offset to left from entrance away from the outside seating. Stools at side of bar, lots of leather stools, chairs, wingback chairs, bookcases etc. Obviously on display were the pics of the (long departed) QM and Charles dispensing pints in Youngs establishments. Had to swap my pint of Original for a pint of Special (not one of my favourite cask ales) as it was somewhat off the mark. Also had Proper Job. Keg beers were Guinness, Peroni, Estrella, Neck Oil, Camden Hells, Pravda, Aspall and Madri. The contrast between this place and the Angel a couple of doors away couldn’t be more stark. This large and over styled Youngs establishment couldn’t offer me a pint of Original that was remotely as good as its rough diamond near neighbour so there you go! This one proclaims it has Roehampton’s best beer garden! Given it is 50% of Roehampton’s pub stock and only competes with the Angel for that accolade it is hardly a great boast. Based on my visit within the same hour it certainly couldn’t proclaim Roehampton’s best cask offering.

This is a grade II-listed building dating back to the late 15th century as the Bull, renamed as the King’s Head in the early 17th century and presumably once a coaching inn and a far cry from the Angel next door. This place was in a near derelict state for around six years prior to refurbishment in 2012; On 8th March 2024 it reopened yet again, having been subjected to one of Young’s high octane makeovers: there’s a fake ‘olde worlde’ bar back, likewise front; modern boarded floor; white ceiling but then zoned areas, some more orientated towards dining than others, dark blue tiles, bare brick, dark wood match board, burgundy walls (with matching wainscoting), dark wood field panelling, smoky grey paint (with matching field panelling), floral wallpaper, nooks, kilims, Victorian-style brass ‘n’ glass hanging lamps, conventional furniture with some leather sofas, sitting room-style décor such as books and table lamps and a mass of eclectic prints, a veritable pot pourri of styles to cater for all tastes; there’s also an open kitchen, so you can smell and hear your food being cooked, all to an anonymous backing track, piped into the new and swanky lavs. The mainly young customers were no doubt drawn from nearby Roehampton University, dogs and children detracting still further from the experience. The cask selection amounted to just London Original and Special, a half of Oil running to a painful £3.65, served by an enthusiastic barman. This place isn’t a disaster but it’s yet another of Young’s Dali-esque creations where I wouldn’t want to linger; the Proper Job option would have got the score up a point; in the unlikely event that I found myself in the area again, the Telegraph would be my preferred choice.

Official site of Kings Head - www.kingsheadsw15.co.uk

Official site of Kings Head - www.kingsheadsw15.co.uk

Young's have re-opened this erstwhile Enterprise pub, it having been closed for about six years. I suppose they will regard it as a rescue job, and on the whole I guess they are right. Being a Young's house it has the usual range of ales on of course, but I gather that they usually have a guest ale from somewhere like Sambrook's. However when I visited yesterday this was not the case - possibly to make room for the seasonal Winter Warmer. But I was a bit unlucky as the Winter Warmer finished as I arrived, and the Special I had instead was just "OK", and not cheap at £3.95 a pint. Food looks to be the main business here - in fact their website labels it as a gastropub. It's no surprise that there's no "pub grub" on the menu. The cheapest main course is "Iron bark pumpkin, toasted chestnuts, pearl barley risotto" at £9, and the most expensive "21 day aged Riverside rib-eye, triple cooked chips, bearnaise, watercress" at £19.50. The menu didn't mention sandwiches, and desserts are £5 - £6. But the pub is obviously doing something right, as it was doing a roaring trade on New Year's Day with plenty of family groups in there. Being a Young's house, it has obviously been thoroughly modernised. The very large conservatory room on the left, just past the open view kitchen, seems to be set aside for diners, but with drinkers being catered for by the area in front of the bar counter, the largish Hogarth Room, as well as a couple of other small rooms leading off from the main area. It's now quite a large pub of course. The furnishings are mainly normal tables and chairs, but with a liberal application of sofas. It looks like it has had an expensive refit, with good quality replacement floorboarding and a new solid wood bar counter. Pastel shdes abound of course, and there's an interesting mural in the main bar area featuring what looks like a hot air balloon-fest. This pub is OK if you like these modernised and sanitised pubs, but it doesn't have the pub character of The Angel next door. One negative point was the smell of cooking food, and the haze it also produced, anywhere near the open view kitchen. But I would visit again in the hope that next time I might be lucky and enjoy a pint of one of their guest ales.