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Zetland Arms, South Kensington, SW7
SW7
SW7 3EX
Pub Type
Taylor Walker (Spirit Pubs)Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
John Bonser left this review about The Zetland Arms
The Zetland Arms, South Kensington
Situated close to South Kensington Tube Station on a busy main road is The Zetland Arms, an attractive looking largish street corner pub.
An information board in one of the doorways tells us that the pub dates back to 1845 and is the oldest building left on the street. In 1880 it was run by Sid Chaplin, the brother of Charles Chaplin. The pub gains its name from the Danish influence of the population in the area at the time.
It's a former Greene King pub, but recently became part of the Punch Taverns empire. The pub retains a fine curved mahogany bar and some etched glass has been retained and repositioned on a wall in the large room at the side of the bar, hinting as a certain lost grandeur, but there's an inevitable chain pub feel to the place, as might be expected from a Punch Taverns outlet with a seemingly clear emphasis on feeding the passing hordes of tourists visiting the nearby museums. Inept black shirted foreign bar staff and a transient clientele contributed to what is, all too often unfortunately, a fairly typical London pub experience nowadays.
Of particular note was, from memory, my first 2010 sighting of a blackboard with the message urging me to "Book Now for Christmas". There's an upstairs function room.
Several relatively unobtrusive TV screens were showing the motor racing. Posters in the gents toilets advertised live football from both La Liga and Serie A, perhaps indicative of the customer base.
3 beers were on - St Austell Tribute, Pride and Young's London Gold. A 4th pump had a TT Landlord pump clip reversed. On my recent Sunday lunchtime visit, my pint of Tribute was served a good inch short, even after the frothy head had subsided and, despite giving the young barmaid ( Spanish, I suspect ) more than ample opportunity to rectify the short measure, I had to specifically request a top up. This elicited a rather suspicious look in response. I told her that the Weights and Measures people might decide to call in sometime, but I don't think she understood where I was coming from. My conversational Spanish isn't what it used to be, so I had to make do with giving her my best sourpuss look..
I've written to Punch Taverns about my experience suggesting that they might want to provide some training pretty pronto - let's see what they say. Ironically, the Tribute - £ 3.32p - tasted really good, although being served short measure always leaves a nasty taste in the mouth as far as I'm concerned.
Previous reviews here are not exactly glowing and I'm not putting this one down for a revisit.
On 7th October 2010
- rating: 4
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Nick Davies left this review about The Zetland Arms
Yet another of a clutch of ex-Watney's pub across a swathe of Kensington that Punch have in recent years converted to their Victorian themed format. If I took you to any of them blindfold you'd be pushed to know which you were in without going outside and looking. So there's the usual high tables, routine beer range and microwave menu. They're pleasant enough for what they are but the uniformity and mediocrity are ultimately depressing.
On 16th September 2010
- rating: 5
[User has posted 567 recommendations about 559 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Chris 87 left this review about The Zetland Arms
Heavily average Greene King pub (I think) a stone's throw from South Kensington tube. Tribute, London Pride and GK Suffok Ale (?) on cask and Tribute was in ok condition. Nothing really to raise this pub above the average; it filled up when the football started and lots of people including my mate and I were eating. I recovered a Spanish bloke's phone halfway through the evening when he left it on our table and, somewhat disappointingly, he didn't buy me a pint. South Ken is not an area I know well but there are probably better pubs in the vicinity
On 25th March 2010
- rating: 5
[User has posted 179 recommendations about 179 pubs]