Not already a member?
Join our community and
- Rate & review pubs
- Upload pictures
- Add events
JOIN for free NOW
Chat about:
Random news of the day with sheffield hatter
on the Pub Forum
Detail Pages
The Albion, Kingston Upon Thames
Kingston Upon Thames
KT1 2PY
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Albion
I still find the Albion to be one of the better Big Smoke outlets, not too far behind the Sussex Arms in Twickenham and the Antelope in Surbiton. Having not been here since 2017, I wasn't sure what the ale and cider range would be like, but I wasn't disappointed. However, as Quinno quite rightly states, you can easily get a bad pint here and I duly did later in the evening.
The full real ale range was Big Smoke Ceremony, Solaris, Cosmic Dawn & Standing Stone, Brew York Viking DNA, Ampersand The Cap Bitter, Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout, Oakham IPA & another beer from Kent Brewery which I failed to note. Ciders were Gwynt y Ddraig Dog Dancer, Big Smoke/Hogan's Country Mile, Lilley's Mango Cider & Ascension Mothership.
Both the Country Mile & the Viking DNA were in fine condition. Having only had halves of those, I decided to have a pint of the 2.5% Standing Stone, with a pint of any Big Smoke beer included in the Tuesday hot dog special. I soon regretted this choice, as the beer was right at the end of the cask. Luckily for me, the barman was very apologetic and let me replace it with a pint of the 6% Ascension Mothership cider, which was a huge improvement in strength and quality.
The pub itself has an L-shaped room. The front of the pub is fairly dark in nature, whilst it seems to become a bit better lit towards the rear right-hand side. Toilets are midway along the right-hand wall. After initially sitting opposite the gents, we soon decided that the smell was off-putting and moved to the far corner to a table overlooking a large outdoor seating area with patio heaters.
Despite the questionable beer quality at times, I still rate this as easily the best pub in Kingston, with a good range of ales and ciders and I haven't mentioned the extensive craft beer range. With bar staff happy to exchange any dodgy pints and taking them off sale, I'm still prepared to give the Albion the benefit of the doubt and a big thumbs up.
On 17th March 2023
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Albion
Try-hard Big Smoke outlet. Fairly bland L shaped interior with a load of old pump clips stuck to the ceiling. Nine cask on, ‘four too many’ I mused to my companion and indeed bar the Harveys none of the others were shifting – we both (stupidly) went for the Big Smoke Stout and inevitably pint #1 was warm and flabby whilst pint #2 was better. A number of Big Smoke pubs I’ve been to have given me indifferent cask quality and this was another one…all fur coat and no knickers.
On 18th March 2022
- rating: 6
[User has posted 5072 recommendations about 5055 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about The Albion
A street corner pub which has an attractive exterior,in an upmarket colour scheme and Big Smoke Brewery lettering.The interior has been largely stripped out,with a long bar opposite the entrance,a dark wooden floor and solid wooden furniture with a tea light at every table.This decor extends to the right side leading to a beer garden ,but carpeted in artificial grass.The very hot weather had resulted in flying ants taking up residence in said artificial grass so we gave up sitting on the pic nic benches.
The interior has the feel of a gastro pub,although the food is quite regular pub grub and the real star should be the fantastic range of real ale and craft keg.However the hot weather led to less than satisfactory pints of Thornbridge Jaywick and Roosters Yankee.
There were 5 real ciders with always three ales from Big Smoke,with a further 7 guests which included Howling Hops Pale,Siren Breakfast Oatmeal Stout and something else from Thornbridge.There is also a vast array of 20 keg taps.
I was disappointed by my ale condition ,but the weather has been extreme and I would give it another go to get a better feel of this pub on the ale front.
On 14th July 2018
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Graham Coombs left this review about The Albion
Excellent beer exhibition pub, with 10 ales and 5 ciders on pump, plus 20 craft ales on tap. Nice garden area at rear too. There is a loyalty card for beer sales!
On 16th October 2017
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3339 recommendations about 3276 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Albion
Situated just a short walk from Kingston town centre, the Albion is the third pub from the team behind the Sussex Arms in Twickenham, the Antelope in Surbiton and the Big Smoke Brewery. The pub has a large, open plan L-shaped layout which felt rather plain and lacking in character thanks to bare boards, sparse furnishings and limited decor. There is some sturdy looking banquette seating to the left of the entrance and a selection of tables and chairs to the right. Walls have been painted in pastel shades, with a few dark panels retained in places, whilst some visual distraction is provided by a few beer themed posters. As the room extends to the rear down the right hand side of the building, another seating area appears, with a smart row of tables to the left and low stools to the right. The bar runs along the back wall, directly opposite the entrance and has a nice dark wood counter and white-tile bar back. A nice plaster frieze skirts the ceiling in the front part of the pub and there are a lot of pump clips on display here too, including lots on the ceiling behind the bar – one of which fell down and hit the barmaid as she was serving me. Out the back there is a decent sized garden with lots of seating in between plenty of plants and a pretty good covered section for smokers. Lounge-style music played for the majority of our stay and we grabbed a bite to eat from a reasonably priced menu.
There were three Big Smoke beers on the bar, plus one each from Roosters, Plain Ales, Electric Bear, Howling Hops, XT, Belleville and Thornbridge. I tried the Thornbridge Galaxia (£4.10), which was in very good shape, and sneaked a quick pint of the Belleville Thames Surf IPA before we left, which was unfortunately a little hazy and past its best. Five cider/perry options and a vast craft keg selection ensure that everyone is catered for and my other half really enjoyed her Lilley’s Mango cider.
This is another good venue from the Big Smoke team and will appeal to those looking for a wide selection of beers to work through. I found the pub itself lacking in character, but that is something that will hopefully be rectified over the course of time and I can see this quickly becoming Kingston’s ‘destination’ pub.
On 12th September 2017
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about The Albion
An absolute transformation from what was once a very mediocre GK house into an ale emporium with fifteen handpumps and twenty keykeg taps. Three Big Smoke beers were on, brewed up the road at sister pub The Antelope in Surbiton. Beware that these are unfined so will come up hazy but not cloudy, they are very good. An excellent range were on with just one pull unclipped, there were four ciders amongst the range. I'll not list them all but I have to say the Gun Brewery IPA was tremendous. Soul music from the turntable, a proper fire, it was all very chilled and convivial. So good I wasn't even perturbed by the baby going for the land speed crawling record around the floor. A superb addition to the local scene and worthy of the title "Destination Pub".
On 2nd January 2017
- rating: 9
[User has posted 1707 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Albion
I paid my first visit to this pub the other day since it's joined Big Smoke Brewery as their fourth pub, and I was very impressed indeed. When we arrived there were "only" nine ales and four ciders on, but a tenth ale had arrived at some stage before we left. If I had any criticism I would say that they were too heavy on golden ales, with seven of the ten being IPAs or the like. There was one porter on; one brown bitter; and Belleville Balham Black, which is branded as a sort of black lager. There were three Big Smoke ales on - all were unfined and unfiltered, with the warning as to the style in small letters on the pump clips. all the real ales were £4. They also do food - as a I recall toasties were £3.95 with sandwiches between £5 and £6. A little mug of "skin-on" chips was £1.50. But one comes here for the beer, and not really for the food.
There were a couple of armchairs by the fireplace, but otherwise all the furnishings were traditional. The music, which wasn't too loud, was provided by a turntable system system behind the bar. Notable highlights of the music selection when I was in were albums by The Doors, and Curtis Mayfield. I didn't notice anything special about the decor, apart from loads of pub clips. I'm hoping that the lluminated pigeon or Dove at the back is just a Christmas affectation.
Here they've managed to modernise the place somewhat without destroying its pub character. This is the sort of pub that I would love to have as my local. I will undoubtedly return some time.
On 31st December 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Albion
A decent sized L shaped pub, wooden floored with a few table and chairs as well as some armchairs scattered around, not enough to clutter the place though.An impressive range of ale and ciders, all in use on a Monday lunchtime bar one blank cider handle.Ales were three from Big Smoke,Solaris,Electric Eye and Underworld Milk Stout along with Park Porter,Binghams Twyford Tipple,Westerham 1965,Roosters Silent Assassin, Southwark Bermondsy Best,Siren Soundwave and Wimbledon Tower, Ciders were Rosies Pig,Lillys Mango, Lyme Bay Undercurrent and Gwynt Y Ddraig Black Dragon, something there for most tastes and a great addition to Kingston.£4.00 seems to be the default price of a pint regardless of strength as in sister pub The Antelope in nearby Surbiton and as a bonus I found out the same loyalty card works for both pubs.
On 29th November 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1871 recommendations about 1844 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about The Albion
Now taken over by the Big Smoke Brewery and reopened in August after a major refit. As mentioned below this sad old former GK pub has been transformed into a decent Craft and Cask pub. The bar top now has a row of 15 hand pumps with 10 real ales and 5 ciders and the white tiled keg wall behind has 20 keg taps on it.
For my visit a couple of Big Smoke beers were on in the shape of Electric Eye and Solaris along with a couple of Oakham Ales ( JHB, Green Devil IPA), Thornbridge Lord Marples, Arbour Oz Bomb and The Park Brewery Autumn Brown Ale.
Then on the Craft wall along with four beers from Big Smoke were offerings from Beavertown, tiny Rebel, Siren, Mad Hatter, Wild Beer and Camden Town to name a few.
Suffice to say this is a little bit of an improvement and almost worth coming to Kingston now instead of just passing through on the way to Twickenham.
On 1st November 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2109 recommendations about 1991 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john gray left this review about The Albion
Now a free house with about 8 cask beers and twenty keg.Very similar layout to its sister pub the Antelope.Smart interior and I liked the art work on the wall for the Big Smoke beers.Small rear area with seating.Tried 2 beers and both in good condition.
On 21st October 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1023 recommendations about 1009 pubs]