Elephant & Castle, Kensington, W8

A street corner pub situated in the pleasant back streets away from the busy high street,although technically a one room pub there are two distinct drinking areas. There were just four beers on whilst I was there,Doom Bar, Trumans Runner,Exmoor Gold and Nicholsons Pale, I tried the Trumans beer and found it to be served to warm with a slight musty taste about it. I was Impressed with the pub itself but question the beer Quality, I would give another go here.

Well described below, this backstreet boozer, currently owned by Nicholson’s, has a GBG entry which is well deserved. Six ales on this visit: Camerons Fridge Magnet, Robinson’s Wizard, Doombar, Kōma Off The Wall, Adnam’s Jester and Exmoor Beast, plus a menu of bottled beers including Brewdog, Williams, Siren and Hawkes. Staff were pleasant and the ambience was fine apart from the gaming machine. There was also a wine list, but this was uninspiring and dull, but then this is an ale pub, not a wine bar. Worth spending a few hours enjoying their beers.

This is a Nicholson’s house so you can expect a decent ale selection. This one had on Doom Bar, London Pride, Sharp’s Cornish Trawler, Red Squirrel Hopfest and Thornbridge Frank as Apollo. Some of the old Charrington signage remains on the bar back. A typical Nicholson’s pub grub menu is available, but in this upmarket area of Kensington it’s obviously not one of the cheapest that you’ll see – e.g. the fish and chips (sorry “premium line caught cod, chips, and mushy peas”) is £10.95. The pub itself is attractive and reasonably comfortable, although it’s been considerably opened up over the years of course. It’s bare boarded, has mainly banquette seating with some some wooden seats and standard tables, and there’s also some seating on a terrace outside. The walls are wood panelled to three quarter height, and there is a small room around to the left and rear of the bar counter which would no doubt have been a private bar or snug in the past. Set in a quiet street away from the hustle and bustle of the Kensington High St area, I found this pub to be a very pleasant retreat. It gets busy as these sort of places inevitably do, but it’s certainly worth a visit if you’re in the area looking for a decent pint or two in convivial surroundings.