The Durell Arms, Parsons Green, SW6

This pub dates from at least the late 19th century, sitting in the heart of Fulham Road. I had suspected that this was going to be some sort of upmarket gastropub, but on entering found it to be anything but. It’s a large, stripped out area, with a part tiled, part modern herringbone floor. The front third is bland with tall, chunky furniture, the bar having a bare brick rear, but with a very ornate, voluptuous bar front, now somewhat distressed. The pub’s mid-section features bench booths, each with its own TV; it’s here that you’ll find a lovely grand fireplace with mirrored mantel to near ceiling height, again looking distressed, with a log burner fitted and used but not in use. On high, there’s a very richly detailed cornice and ceiling, clogged with years of paint; what riches lurk beneath? The rear room has fine wood panelling, is dark and more like a cinema, with a megavision screen showing the football, one of seven in total, broadcasting loud commentary in competition with dross music at volume. Apart from the TVs, the décor comprised just a few framed prints. Customers were overwhelmingly young, male and certainly all local. The ale choice amounted to two unused pumps, then GK IPA and a ‘house’ bitter, which was drinkable, so probably not a GK rebrand, at £2.25 a half. It would seem that this was once a splendid gin place, but stripped of its finery it’s now essentially just a rather dull sports bar for the area’s youth, overall, a real disappointment, but not I suppose by the standards of Fulham, which has just the one destination pub: The White Horse.

Official site of The Durell Arms - www.durellarmsfulham.com

Official site of The Durell Arms - www.durellarmsfulham.com

Corner pub a few minutes trot from the tube. It’s a fairly dull opened-out place with some raised bench booth seating running down one side containing a mini TV in each, presumably for sports. The decorative ceiling is probably the highlight, along with an old fireplace and topper at the rear which look nice but are pretty much hidden away. The quasi-distressed wood bar front contained five pumps with two GK brews in IPA and Yardbird (NBSS 2.5) with Sambrooks Wandle as a guest. Fairly popular on Friday lunchtime with a decent food trade. Not a place that much appealed much to me, however. 5.5

This is a large gastro-style pub that can be reached with a five minute walk from Parsons Green tube station. You enter past a decent looking fenced off pavement seating area through a corner door into a nicely appointed main bar area. The servery is down the right-hand wall with lots of small tables in the spacious area opposite and a nice row of banquettes along the left-hand wall. A few tub chairs to the rear round out the seating options in the bar area. The main highlight is the marvellous decorative ceiling which looks fantastic and is well worth a look in its own right, whilst a nice old fireplace is also of some interest to the rear left. Further on, you enter a rear room which had lots of reserved tables when I popped in, not all seemingly for diners though as a huge screen on the back wall was due to show the evening’s football fixture and one large group appeared to be solely there to watch the match. This room is also bare boarded but offers larger tables for bigger groups in a slightly echoey wood panelled room with a skylight surrounded by similar decorations to the main bar’s ceiling. The walls have been decorated with a few retro drinks and sports posters and there were some large shelving units used to display all sorts of randomly thrown together junk. Despite the football being on, a decent indie soundtrack played in the background throughout my stay. The pub has found its way into recent editions of the Good Beer Guide and had three fairly underwhelming ales on, in the shape of Sambrooks Pumphouse Pale and Red Ale and Greene King IPA. A further pump had a Lilley’s cider whilst a fifth displayed a ‘Coming Soon’ clip. My pint of the Red Ale was pretty good and probably worthy of a GBG spot, although the surly service is unlikely to be winning an award any time soon. I don’t really know the pub scene in this part of town particularly well, but I suspect there are a lot of gastro pubs and a general lack of decent ale, which makes this place worth a look if you’re passing by or a good double-header option when visiting the superior White Horse.

A large open plan pub and being quiet at the time of my visit seemed lacking in any great character, the decor is a mixture of white and green on the walls and the ornate ceiling is not enhanced by a colour best described as mud.One wall has multiple tv screens, one for each booth type seating area,live football is a big thing here, there is a slightly seperate rear room with a big screen at the end the rest of the walls are decorated with various large mirrors and paintings as well as some venitian blinds to make a not unpleasant feature. Five pumps with a not bad selection, GK IPA aside, Windsor and Eton Parklife (good) and 90 glorious years along with Sambrookes Wandle and Red Squirrel Bitter. all in all worth a pint if passing.

Very busy on a Friday night but easy to get served.Four beers on handpump Brosdside,something with a reindeer on the pumpclip and a rather good pint of Sambrookes - wandle.Bit noisy but outside seating at the front helps.

On Wednesday afternoon I paid my first visit to this pub for many years, and like so many pubs it’s changed out of all recognition from the basic boozer that I knew. It’s kept, or possibly reverted to, its original name though. The exterior, and much of the interior, is painted a dull pastel grey/duck egg green colour, which is a clear sign of a thoroughly nodernised pub. The interior design is fairly unusal, with a number of booths on a raised area to the left, with some large (10-seater) tables in the front bar area. Here we also have a couple of sofas/armchairs, some normal tables and chairs, and even a leather bound chest or trunk doing duty as a table. At the back past the booths is another large room with more sofas and the like. There are no tall tables and stools though, and I didn’t spot any fruit machines or other mechanical devices of that ilk. The ales on were GK Fireside and Hogsback RIP. Food is available here, with main course between £9 and £13. Prices are shown pretentiously – with the pie of the day 10.5, which I suppose means that it costs £10.50. So, not cheap by any means. I would hope that it’s homemade for that price, although the menu didn’t say so. Sandwiches are available until 6.0, coincidentally at £6.0 a throw. On the whole the pub’s OK. The beer costs the going rate, with the RIP at £3.30 a pint as I recall for a good quality 5% ale. It’s a large opened up pub, but is clean and as comfortable as most pubs. It’s not the sort of pub that I would rush back to, but OK for a pint or two if you’re in the area.