Crown & Anchor, Chiswick, W4

Randomness Guide to London - Crown And Anchor entry

Randomness Guide to London - Crown And Anchor entry

Bold yellow brick and tile exterior, with plenty of interesting reminders of its former life as a Youngs house. Unfortunately, most of the interior character has been stripped out during several refurbishments and it now has a fairly anonymous gasto-pub layout with the obligatory open kitchen, etc. However, it is quite light and airy, with some largeish windows, pale wood furniture and light pastel-shade paintwork on the walls. Nice little wood-burning stove towards the back. Two handpumps, with Purity Mad Goose and a good Adnams Irish Stout (at £3.40) on. As these sort of places go, not that bad.

I found this pub to be rather soulless and uninviting. No less than five people were using notebook computers and not drinking alcoholic drinks. There was also a largish group of mums with at least two screaming children. Personally I prefer a pub that doesn't have the appearance of being a cross between a crèche and an office. Pride and Young's Bitter on – the Young's at £3 a pint is not cheap. Looks good on the outside with an original Young's façade – but I won't be going inside again.

As soon as I had walked into the Crown and anchor I thought “oh dear, this is no pub with the words ‘crown' or ‘anchor' in the name that I have ever encountered before”. It was only later in my stay that I discovered that it is actually called Shackology, so everything is now clear. I waited for a couple of minutes to be served as it was very busy with me being the only customer and 5 staff milling about the bar obviously isn't enough. When I was served it was only because one member of staff had delegated the serving of my half a Red Stripe to another. The other draught available was Kirin Ichiban and Erdinger with a token offering of ale in the form of Bombadier. If I was the type to go out for a cup of coffee and read the morning papers, which I'm not, this is the type of place I would like, but it was nearly empty and Zizzi is just up the road and it was pretty busy.