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The Britannia, Kensington, W8

1 Allen Street
W8
W8 6UX
Phone: 02079376905

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Reviews (Current Rating Average: of 10) Add Review see review guidelines


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


custodian 42 left this review about The Britannia

Uninspiring Youngs pub. Well done out as have been all the pubs I have visited today, but only Youngs special at 4.5% will not inspire a revisit.

On 12th October 2016 - rating: 5
[User has posted 1693 recommendations about 1691 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Tris C left this review about The Britannia

As mentioned below, this was indeed once called The Britannia Brewery Tap and dates back to 1834, though substantially altered over the years and acquired its current name in 1938. The former Britannia Brewery is now occupied by the neighbouring Allen Mansions.
Situated in a rather ordinary part of Kensington, just off Kensington High Street, this is, surprisingly, a very large pub with quite a modern interior, modern in that it has recently been renovated. It's bare boarded with mixed lighting, eclectic furniture, the ubiquitous blue/grey colour scheme and is split over two levels with a helical metal staircase leading up to the two function rooms. Also on display are ugly aircon ducts though this is countered by the blessed relief of no TVs, the pub providing welcome respite from the onslaught of Euro 2016. To the side, there's a small smoking alley.
This pub though is a bit sterile and resembles a more corporate or hotel venue and the gaggle of potty-mouthed squealing Australian cougars was a bit off-putting for us.
Ales: Young's Special and Bitter, an unused pump and Sambrook's Wandle at a steep £4.45 a pint and fine.
I wouldn't avoid coming here again, but The Scarsdale Tavern around the corner has far more pulling power.

On 2nd July 2016 - rating: 4
[User has posted 1956 recommendations about 1923 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


E TA left this review about The Britannia

A Young’s pub with a floorboarded bar at the front of the ground floor and a dining room at the back. There are also two bars/function rooms upstairs. There is a pleasant London pub atmosphere and an almost exclusively male clientele, the after-work crowd, many drinking wine rather than beer. Plenty of comfortable seating including a couple of sofas. Staff were pleasant and helpful. Four ales on, all from Youngs, I had Young’s Special, which was a little more insipid than I would have liked, but drinkable nonetheless. A decent bolthole, worth a visit.

On 5th May 2016 - rating: 7
[User has posted 3272 recommendations about 3237 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Britannia

Quite hard to spot from a distance, housed in a relatively low building and somewhat overshadowed by its taller neighbours. With the Young's makeover team having done its thing a few years ago, the main bar is decorated in a restrained upmarket style with the usual mixture of high, standard and low furniture. A smaller seating area and the two-part restaurant section is down a couple of steps, rather plainly done but enlivened by a gallery of interesting photographs on two of the walls. There are also a few tables and chairs outside in a very cramped alleyway. The menu looks interesting, until you see the prices that is! Beerwise, there are usually three of the four handpumps working, usually offering Special, Ordinary and Bombardier. Another point to note - it is closed for two hours each afternoon (including weekends). Overall, somewhere fairly civilised to get away from the hordes on Kensington High Street.

On 8th September 2012 - rating: 7
[User has posted 8066 recommendations about 8066 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Rex Rattus left this review about The Britannia

This is a Young’s pub that’s been given a makeover that’s typical of this pubco. There are sofas and armchairs all over the main bar area, a bareboarded floor, pastel painted wlls, and other modernistic features such as the empty wine bottles in a rack on the wall as a decorative feature. The area at the back is effectively the dining room, as mentioned by others.
This was at one time the brewery tap for the (failed) Britannia Brewery which was acquired by Young’s in the 1920s. The brewery is long demolished now and replaced by residential accommodation, leaving just the pub, which has been extended to the the left. There’s a large mural photograph of the pub and brewery behind some sofas at the back, probably taken soon after Young’s acquired it.
When I was in yesterday afternoon they had on Bitter, Special and Bombardier, with no guest ale. But this pub’s raison d’etre is certainly not the beer. It’s anything but a locals’ pub now. But it was open in the afternoon when several members of my group were desperate for a cup of coffee, so if you want to visit a wine bar/restarant/pub with the appearance and comfort of a hotel longe then this is the place for you.

On 3rd April 2012 - rating: 5
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Nick Davies left this review about The Britannia

If only we could go back to the glory days of John and June. Then, the Brit was one of the few pubs to be in every edition of the Good Beer Guide, was a regular West London pub of the year, had a proper public bar and was busy all time. People used to come from all over. John and June retired about five years ago, about the same time as the bean counters took charge of Young's and wrecked this pub along with much of the rest of their tied estate. It's now yet another soulless gastropub that could be anywhere. That I increased the number of customers by 25% the other lunchtime says it all. In the old days I would have had to wait to get served.

I suppose it's OK if you want somewhere nice to take your mum and your aunty for lunch but if you're looking for a pub look elsewhere.

On 22nd August 2011 - rating: 4
[User has posted 567 recommendations about 559 pubs]