The Pocket Watch, Shepherds Bush, W12

This is a late Victorian corner pub, known by its original name of the British Queen until 2015. The interior is marked by black wainscoting, then bare brick walls and an otherwise industrial interior, with fairly conventional furniture (see website). There were no customers shortly after my arrival, two leaving as I entered and hopefully not because of. The website doesn’t give any details other than opening times, though I overheard one barmaid agreeing with another that they’d unilaterally shut at 10.00 pm. Despite being a Brakspear’s house, they don’t have enough faith in their customers to stock any real ale, with just one unused pump then one for Gravity, reversed. I opted for a half of London Fields Hackney Hopster, which was just another dull keg fizz at £3.10, served by an understandably bored barmaid. This is a bit of a sad place, which if I lived locally, wouldn’t use.

This is a small street corner pub in a fairly unfashionable area between Acton and Shepherd’s Bush. The pub has been given a bit of a makeover in recent years by its new owners from the Brakspear Brewery and has a notional two room layout, although things have been opened out quite a bit, making such a distinction a little less obvious than it might otherwise have been. The front room is the main bar area and has smart dark wood floorboards, some half-panelled walls painted in a dark shade of purple with bare brick uppers and some modern branded windows along two sides of the room. The bar follows the rear half of the left-hand wall and has a modern wood panelled counter front, some basic shelving along the bar back and a metal framed gantry. There’s a reasonable mix of seating options including high tables and stools, some basic tables and chairs and a few leather sofas and upholstered armchairs. Tv screens at either end of the room were both switched off in favour of a pretty cool90’s indie soundtrack, although I got the impression this is the sort of pub that would be showing live football given the chance. Moving through to the rear room, you find a somewhat more formal area with standard tables and chairs, full wood panelled walls and a few decorative items here and there, plus another unused TV screen. A fee metal table and chairs were chucked out on the pavement, but on such a busy road, they seemed viable only for the smokers and most hardened of people-watchers. Despite the Brakspear’s takeover, they could only manage two of their turned pump clips on the bar leaving me to scan the craft keg options for an alternative. I eventually settled on a pint of London Fields Hackney Hopster, which cost a whopping £6.00 – not the sort of price I expect to pay in your average street corner boozer. Service was curt but efficient and there was a small group of rowdy punters in who created a bit of tension in what is clearly still a bit of a working man’s boozer, despite the makeover. I was a bit disappointed not to find any cask ale available here although the pub’s clientele didn’t strike me as big ale drinkers, so it’ll be interesting to see whether it catches on here. The brewery has done a decent job of modernising the pub without completely wiping out its character and I found it was a pretty good place to relax with a pint – just a shame that pint wasn’t something better and more reasonably priced.

Official site of The Pocket Watch - brakspear.co.uk

Official site of The Pocket Watch - brakspear.co.uk

Official site of The Pocket Watch - www.pocket434.co.uk

Official site of The Pocket Watch - www.pocket434.co.uk

Very smart modern conversion.Brick, high tables, wood, mismatched chairs and nice lighting are par for the course in the newer pubs.Warm feel to the place.Three handpumps with Breakspears -gold and bitter on.Dull beer.