The Windsor Castle

I was thinking that this next pub might be a bit of a disappointment after the Churchill Arms had been so good.  How wrong I was!  The Windsor Castle is a really fantastic pub.  Again on entry the mood and atmosphere of the pub hits you and you feel immediately at home.  The dark wooden tables, bar and wpartitions give it genuine traditional pub feel.  No wonder it is in the national heritage pub inventory.  I’ve not got into the historic pub thing too much yet but I totally appreciate what they are doing as this type of pub is amazing to visit and could never be replaced by a horrible soulless air port lounge style Slug and Lettuce pub.  I’d always rather drink in a pub like the Windsor Castle than any other.  We got a seat by the door to the garden.  We didn’t see the garden on the day though as it was dark and cold.  

Pic off their website

My picture

Pub sign

The pub had a good range of ales and lager.  The lagers were all decent looking and they had the likes of Leffe and Aspalls Cider on tap which is a nice touch of class.  On tap they had White Horse Porter, which I had and it was a very good beer and I hope the brewery grows in size and is successful.  Also on tap was Sambrooks Wandle and Liberation Ale, which seems to be doing the rounds at the moment.  I’d not seen it till a few weeks ago.  

We sat in the pub for a few beers and enjoyed every moment.  Again this is well deserved of being in the good pub guide.   I will be going back to this pub in the summer to see the garden.  I thought it was such a fantastic pub.  I’d travel a long way to have a pint here.  As it turned out it was an easy winner for our favourite pub of the day!

The Churchill Arms

I met the lads, Woody and Frosty at Charring Cross.  Woody and I nipped down to the Princess of Wales for a pint while we waited for Frosty.  I had a great pint of Hook Norton Jackpot a beer I’d not had before.  Just a quick note on the Princess of Wales...  First impressions are of any other city pub with its fairly modern design but upon closer inspection you’ll find that they have a really good range of ales on tap.  Its actually a really good pub with good beer and knowledgeable staff.  I go there regularly and it never lets me down.  When I was there they had six ales on, Hook Norton Jackpot, Lancaster Red, Red Dragon, Brains SA, Pride and Doom Bar.  I’d recommend going there anytime.  

Frosty arrived and we headed over to the Churchill Arms the first pub on our walk.  We were pretty excited about getting there and seeing if it was as good as the book made out.  We were not let down.  Upon entering the put we could tell straight away it was good.  There was a warm bustling atmosphere and it was nicely full in there.  We got served so quickly Woody couldn’t even decide what to have that fast.  I didn’t blame him, the choice was good.  Being a Fullers pub they had their full range on tap, fresh up from Chiswick.  I had two pints of very nice ESB, Woody and Frosty were savouring the other Fullers selections such as Chiswick and Discovery.  

ESB

The pub is pretty big with a long curved bar.  We got a seat after 10 minutes or so.  Once sitting we could look up and really take a moment to observe some of items decorating the pub walls and ceiling.  The pub is full of different interesting, pub and Churchill related items.  There is so much it would not be possible to take them all in on one visit.  The outside is known as well for being decorated with flowers.  They had a few TVs too showing the rugby.  They are well set out though so if you did want a TV free pint you could sit on the other side of the bar.  This pub is definitely deserving of being in the GPG!  We were sad to be moving on but also excited to be on the way to another good pub guide pub.  I will be going back to the Churchill Arms.  

Churchill

“Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.” Winston Churchill

The Next Step

I had to take this adventure beyond the South East of London.  It was already Febuary and I still hadn’t been to anywhere North of the river.  My good mate Woody said he was around for a pub crawl.  It was with Woody that my original interest in pubs began.  Before then my interest in pubs was based only seeing them as a place to drink.  I was more interested in different types of beer and trying as many different beers as I could over time.  I still love trying new beers, going to beer festivals, going to Belgium (Bruge) or just to good pubs to try new beers but it was always just about the beer.  If I could get a good pint of beer that I had never had before that would be great but I didn’t really care where we were.  

Maybe it was because I was starting to have to go further afield to find new beers or if it was just age and looking for a more rounded drinking experience but I started to notice how interesting pubs can be.  I had drunk so many different types of beer (I recently was given a book called 1001 beers to drink before you die, I’d had a large proportion of them).  The reason why Woody played such a big part of this was because he suggested one day that we meet in London for a beer.  We met up at 4pm and went on an epic pub crawl during which I was introduced to some great pubs like The Salisbury pub, the Princess of Wales down by Charring Cross and De Hems in Soho.  This day out was the spark that set my interest in pubs going.  After that pub crawls around London became a semi regular event which has continued to this day.   Most of the pubs we visited were in the West End and Westminster.  Cheers Woody and long my it continue!

I love a guide, as you can probably tell from this blog which its self is based on a guide.  I don’t really follow the view that guides just take you to where all the other tourists go, usually guides like the good pub guide for example, do a very good job.  As such I went to waterstones and bought the CAMRA London Pub Walks book.  I had a look at this and planned to do walk number 21 in Notting Hill and Bayswater as my next pub visit.  This would include two pubs on my list the Churchill Arms and the Windsor Castle.  Importantly as well they were the first two pubs on the walk so I would not be too drunk to give them a good view.