The Lord Palmerston, Dartmouth Park, NW5

Summer 2010: We popped in here on a Saturday night at peak time and the pub seemed a little dead and lacking in atmosphere. This was my first visit since I used to frequent the place in the late 1980s when it was a bit of a dive; to be honest, I preferred it back then. With the Southampton Arms (redux), Junction Tavern, Dartmouth Arms and Bull & Last all a short walk away, I can't really see myself returning; not a bad pub in all, it's just that there's better just around the corner. -------------------- A return visit a couple of days ago and this pub has been improved, the result of a makeover from November 2017. This is now a Ram Pub Co. outlet so there's a triumvirate of the usual Young's ales and in addition Hammerton's N7, none tried as I fancied a glass of wine. The interior exhibits pale bare boards, a panelled wooden central bar painted a burgundy colour and there's a modern shelf-style bar back painted predictable smoky blue. Furniture is essentially conventional with some rustic large tables with more formal dining to the left-hand rear to replace the pool table. The white ceiling exhibits some attractive roses and an ornate cornice. A muted TV was on showing tennis of some sort. There's not much décor, though the walls are adorned with colourful lithographs of birds. Upstairs is a very inviting function room and very smart new lavatories. In all, the pub has a rather stripped out look to it, but not in an unpleasant way. There's food from a varied menu with prices shown in fractions, e.g. 12.5 rather than £12.50; this is tedious, pretentious, and old-hat. To the outside there's a spacious heated front patio with a beer garden to the rear. Friendly staff and an overall better experience than seven-and-a-half years ago, but this isn't a destination venue.

The Lord Palmerston is a decent looking pub that is situated on Dartmouth Park Hill. Once inside there is a single room with the bar facing,the front area is bare boarded,there is pew seating and normal tables and chairs to the front,the room extends to the rear left where there is a pool table,this area is also carpeted. There were four real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Twickenham Naked Ladies which was a very nice drink,the other real ales were St Austell Tribute,Taylor Landlord and Doom Bar. Background music was playing and food was being served,but did not take over the pub. I quite enjoyed having a drink in this pub. Pub visited 2/6/2017

Attractive 'U'-shaped gastro-pub, very much in the Geronimo Inns mould, with the high front windows being quite a feature. Menus on clipboards, but a pub quiz starting while I was there so still slightly traditional in some ways too. Patio beer garden to rear. Beers from four of five handpumps included Twickenham Naked Ladies (£4.10), Doom Bar and beers from Youngs and Sambrooks.

The only ale available here was Doom Bar (£1.95 a half), and with no less than four other handpumps unclipped and apparently unused, at least on my visit. This is still a gastropub - after ordering my half I was asked if I was eating with them today. I suppose that was the prompt to be given a menu (or not in my case), as there weren't any on the tables. There was a chalkboard on the chimney breast listing a load of sharing plates, but there wasn't anything I recognised. Being a gastropub, there wasn't a proper bar back, just effectively a large wine rack. Nonetheless there was a decent amount of seating (mainly hard wooden tables and chairs) at the front of the bar for drinkers, and with an area at the back on the left with tables laid for diners. By the fireplace at the front on the right is a sofa, with loads of board games beneath the table in front of it, and there's some bench seating outside at the front, as well as a garden at the back. But this isn't much like a pub, even though it's got an original pub name. The ale selection's not up to much either. But I did get a very warm welcome from the barmaid, so I reckon this pub just about gets into the "OK" category.

Official site of The Lord Palmerston - www.rampubcompany.co.uk