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The Foresters Arms, Kingston Upon Thames
Hampton Wick
Postal town: Kingston Upon Thames
KT1 4DG
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Foresters Arms
This is a smart pub with a small public bar and separate dining room, that seems to have retained a fair bit of its original identity, unlike other pubs in the Hampton Wick area. The pub looks great on approach thanks to a fine coloured glazed tile façade, adorned with lots of bright hanging baskets and planters. There’s a good-sized bit of pavement to one side, which has been liberally filled with picnic benches, so that I could actually hear the pub’s punters before I could even see the building. Entering through the front door, you find yourself in the main bar area, with the servery directly opposite. This serves the public bar over to the left and a slightly redundant central space either side of the entrance, which is bare boarded and has a few comfy stools along a ledge in the front window bay – a great spot for people watching – but not much else of note, with most of the area given over to standing room. The left bar is carpeted and offers tables and chairs around an attractive tiled fireplace with an elaborately decorated mirror above. The walls are a mix of plain painted and crumbling exposed brickwork, and have mostly been left unadorned, although I did spot a muted TV screen in the front left corner. The bar has a counter with padded leather panels on the front, a traditional pot shelf with an old wireless set perched on the top, and a nice dark wood bar back. Moving through to the right, there is a bare boarded dining room with formal rows of tables and chairs plus a few button backed banquettes. Plain walls are the order of the day in here too and there’s a second tiled fireplace, also with an attractive mirror above. A jazz funk soundtrack was playing in the background, quietly enough to not make me want to run out of the pub screaming.
The pub has made recent editions of the Good Beer Guide and had four cask ales available on this occasion – Surrey Hills Ranmore and Shere Drop and Twickenham Summer Sun and Noonsack. I opted for the latter, which came in at £4.70, was served in a correctly branded glass and turned out to be in absolute tip-top condition. I had a bit of a wait to get served, made worse when a second barman appeared and assumed I was already being served, so taking an order from a lady who’d just turned up – he was extremely apologetic when he realised his mistake though.
This is a decent pub with a nice public bar that is a good place to relax with one of their extremely well-kept pints of ale. The other pubs nearby have either been opened out a lot or else focus a little too much on food, but this place still has a proper pub feel and would be my first choice when I’m next over on this side of the river.
On 4th December 2021
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Graham Coombs left this review about The Foresters Arms
Quite a dining room feel from the waxed floorboards, rows of tables and bentwood chairs with generally salubrious decor but drinkers still welcome. There is also a bay window area with stools opposite the var and a few tables on the pavement outside. They seem to look after their ales though, with one ready they weren't going to put on until they had cleaned through properly, which is always a good sign. Draught on this visit being Twickenham Naked Ladies, Surrey Hills Shere Drop and Oakham Citra.
On 3rd October 2021
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3339 recommendations about 3276 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Foresters
A lovely (unique to my eyes) blue glazed faience tiled exterior leads to a very nice upmarket/off-beat interior but nicely done. L-shaped interior which is carpeted. The left spur has an alcove room with a fireplace, red velvet banquettes, exposed brick walls, books, ruched red ceiling billow and brewery mirrors. At the main bar there’s a strange button-back bar front, black velveteen flower ceiling wallpaper, newspapers, board games and TV cricket. Also not the collection of old transistor radios above the bar and the 1970’s era stylized music posters on the walls. To the right of the bar, behind a curtain, is a formal dining area. Five pumps with four on; Pride, Doom Bar, Twickenham Spring (very good) and Wimbledon Quartermaine IPA (decent). The atmosphere was enhanced by Nina Simone’s back catalogue being piped through. It’s an unusual place but we all rather enjoyed this one and I’d say it’s worth seeking out for the novelty value (plus decent beer as well). Others may violently take against it, though. 7.5
On 4th July 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about Foresters
The interior of this pub seems to be largely as Maldenman found it over four years ago, but the ale choice seems to have improved somewhat. There were five ales on when I visited on Wednesday afternoon - Doom Bar, London Pride, Twickenham Grandstand, Wimbledon Brewery Tower, and Park Brewery Spring Ale (£2 a half). I had the Spring Ale, which is a light ale from a micro-brewery a stone's throw from the pub. A sign above the clips said "try any three ales for the price of one beer". The sign didn't say so, but I assume you would get three thirds of a pint. I didn't see a menu, but saw plenty of food being delivered to tables.
The exterior of the pub is very attractive, retaining its original light and dark blue (could be turquoise - I'm not good with colours) faience tiling. You enter the pub into the main bar area where there are a few tall stools at a ledge in the bay window facing the handpumps. On the left is a bit more bar area with a couple of normal tables and chairs, a few small stools and a single tall table with tall stools. This leads into a small alcove room with a couple of sofas, and with a silk/satin sheet draped from the ceiling, giving it a sort of desert bedouin look. A large room on the right had all the tables laid for diners, including a very large ten or so seater, and with another of those sheets on the ceiling.
The bar area had nothing more exotic on its ceiling than old posters for various shows and the like. The exposed brickwork is still here; there are gilt mirrors on the walls; an old tiled fireplace is on the left; and there was a rack by the door containing newspapers. A sign (in the gents of all places - maybe there was one in the ladies as well) advertised rooms at £50 a night.
The ale selection is good even if it does contain a couple of the usual suspects. I would prefer it if the dining area lost a little bit of space in favour of drinkers, but presumably it does have a demand for a large restaurant area. Nonetheless, I quite liked this pub even though the comfortable seating in the bar area was quite limited.
On 22nd April 2016
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
'Suzi Dee left this review about Foresters
We had the most amazing evening at the Foresters last night! Live music, food, service and atmosphere were all second to none. I had the steak and my friend had the Belly of Pork and I have to say that it was the best meal I have had in a pub/restaurant for about six years, and I eat out A LOT! I live in Kingston and have a few so called "Gastro pubs" near to me, who should take a few leaves out of the Foresters book in my opinion. Most of them are very overpriced and do not deliver in terms of quality and value for money. I am so pleased that I have found this place and will recommend it to everyone that I know.
We will be back very soon. Thank you for a great night :-)
On 18th November 2012
- rating: 10
[User has posted 1 recommendations about 1 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about Foresters
An attractive green/turquoise tiled exterior gives way inside to two main rooms, to the right, a dining area, very popular last Sunday afternoon, and straight ahead the bar. The bar area has a part wooden, part carpeted floor, mostly traditional seating, although there is a small secluded area off this room behind a curtain which has two sofas between a low table in front of a fireplace. This area at the time of my visit was occupied by a young couple who seemed to be very good friends indeed, therefore precluding the use of the opposite sofa to all but the most determined of persons in need of a seat. The bar area has a lot of exposed brickwork, usually such brickwork is "fair-faced", ie designed to be seen but this is clearly old Victorian work of not especially good quality and therefore looks rather more worrying than it does a design feature.
Posters around and on the ceiling advertised music events, and a laid back bluesy jazz played while strangely an old B&W war film played silently on the box. Sunday papers were laid out on a table by the bar.
The bar is reasonably pubby but there are hints of modern fashion/gastro pub style such as the candles in wine bottles, and flowers in vases. Over the bar there is a collection of old, mainly Bakelite radios.
Drink wise, there are three handpumps, Pride, Old Speckled Hen and Doom Bar, nothing exciting but at least a choice. Accommodation is advertised.
On 13th November 2011
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1708 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
John Bonser left this review about The Forresters
Just down the road from The Swan, on the other side, is The Foresters, an attractive looking street corner pub with a tiled frontage. High up on the wall outside, it announces itself as “Restaurant and Accommodation”, although, based on my recent late afternoon visit, it caters for drinkers as well. Outside also is an old Taylor Walker plaque, indicative of former ownership.
As we approach the pub, we see several rather officious and formal looking notices from one “Thomas J Furber, FBII – Proprietor”, telling us not to disturb residents when we leave, not to smoke in the doorway etc.
There’s separate entrances on each street corner and I imagine that this would have once been a fairly typical two bar Victorian street corner local, although there’s no etched glass or old photos of the pub anywhere to confirm this for us.
Inside, we find a pleasant traditional interior retaining what could be its original bar counter and gantry, but the empty wine bottles with candles and menu holders on several scrubbed tables indicate a food emphasis, even in the smallish bar area of the pub. Several shelves contain one of the largest collections of board games that I can recollect seeing in a pub for some time, which seems odd as it doesn’t feel like a family orientated establishment at all. Note also a collection of old radios on the bar gantry. A smallish TV high up in one corner was showing snooker with the sound off.
Surprisingly for an establishment this size, there’s special music events at weekends. We see posters telling us that on the last Saturday of every month it’s “Freak Beat at The Foresters” – a night of funk. There’s also “Oh Oh Seven”, which is a “DIY DJ Night celebrating the pure love of 45’s” on certain Friday nights.
At one end, and occupying by far the larger floor area, is the dedicated smart looking restaurant, hidden behind a large black curtain, presumably to shield the diners from the gaze of the hoi polloi in the bar.
Beers on were Doom Bar, London Pride and Hogs Back TEA. I formed the view that these were probably the standard range. Both the Doom Bar and the London Pride were pretty much spot on.
This is a pleasant enough establishment, but I strongly suspect that the apparent food emphasis might prove discouraging to non diners, particularly at peak meal periods, when seats might also be at a premium.
On 3rd May 2011
- rating: 6
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]