The Old Parrs Head, Brook Green, W14

One of the more down market pubs in the area but nice cosy feel.Sky sports and Thai food. With only Pride and Doombar on handpump I would not revisit.

The Old Parrs Head is a corner pub with some café tables out the front and picnic tables railed off from the path down the side. Most of the pub going folk I know would struggle to squeeze themselves onto the seats of the picnic tables as the gap is quite narrow. This is a thin pub with a bar area to the left and a seating area to the right that was being used by people eating the Thai food during my recent Friday lunchtime visit. At the right hand end of the bar is a small area with a flaming cooker that I thought too small to freshly prepare the menu; maybe there is a kitchen out the back. Food is available from midday until 15:00 and 18:00 until 22:00 during the week and all day at the weekend. Standard draught is available from the bar and two of the four hand pumps were unused leaving Pride and Doom Bar as the ale options. I counted three televisions and Sky Sports is advertised, but these were all off during my visit as there was no popular sport being played. There was some background music playing at a reasonable volume. This place is more down to earth than many of its peers, but like the area I wouldn’t go out of my way to drink here again.

I imagine that this pub is named after Old Tom Parr, who is reputed to have lived for over 150 years between the 15th and 17th centuries. Anyway, there were two real ales on here – London Pride and Doom Bar. I just had a half of the Doom Bar that cost £1.90, which struck me as a little over the top. There were pasta and pizza menus on the table – I was in during mid-afternoon on a Saturday – and a 12” Margherita was £7.50. This is a small one-room corner pub. It’s bare-boarded with just normal, but good quality, chairs and solid rectangular wooden tables. There’s apparently a beer garden at the back, although I didn’t visit it, and a few tables and chairs outside on the pavement. The windows have the thin band of green glass that denotes a Charrington’s pub in a previous life. There are some black and white photographs on the walls, but the most unusual feature here are the large models of people on the top of the bar gantry. I didn’t recognise most of them, but I did spot Laurel and Hardy. This is rather a nice little pub with some attractive characteristics – but these do not include the beer prices which are a bit expensive. Nevertheless, I would visit again if I was in the area.