Hammersmith pubs

Not reviewed yet.

Want to review it? Ahh Hammersmith, to all intents and purposes a gigantic traffic island with a bland shopping centre at its heart that is connected to the outside world via a series of piss-stained subways. Several of London's most congested roads converge here creating a maelstrom of motoring insanity. What few people realise is that only a few minutes walk away from all this is an entirely different Hammersmith. The Blue Anchor occupies an enviable position on one of the finest stretches of the Thames. Georgian Londoners clearly agreed and a pub was first licensed here in 1722. It is claimed that Gustav Holst was inspired to write his Hammersmith Suite in this very pub. The pub's interior oozes historical charm and smells pleasantly of woodsmoke. On fine days you can sit outside on the riverside terrace and watch people messing about in boats under the elegant structure of Hammersmith Bridge. I rarely make the effort to write feedback about somewhere that I have eaten but we had such a good time at the Dartmouth Castle yesterday for Mother's Day lunch, that here I am writing about it. The pub had a nice buzzy atmoshpere, the service was great with a good turnover, with no dirty tables in between sittings. The wine was served perfectly and the food, of which you got a really good portion was prepared as requested (I had steak!) We have already booked a table for Easter Sunday! As we left, people were settling into the board games available and did not look as though they were going anywhere soon, an excellent way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Although we obviously did not use the garden area, they have a lovely garden which people were brave enough even to use yesterday. I can wholeheartedly recommend the Dartmouth Castle, give it a try you will not be disappointed. Entirely too popular for its own good, the Dove is an often crowded small pub consisting of several parts - a tiny snug which is supposed to be the smallest bar in England (and hasn't been a bar for that long either), an interior interrupted by the kitchen, and a small terrace overlooking the river - and a staircase leading up to an even smaller one above it. There's no escaping the fact that Hammersmith is hideous. Get off the tube and you're faced with a shopping mall. Escape from that and all there is to greet you is a roundabout, some flyovers and lots and lots of traffic. Oh, and violent rich young men with a hideous taste in pubs, often seen roving in Carlinged-up packs through the wasteland of generic shops between the Apollo and the flyovers, shouting and punching things. The rather cautious traditionalionalism of this Young's pub-by-numbers is, in the context of the place, rather welcome. Almost comically vast, with a deadpan approach to How A Pub Should Be, it serves the usual excellent range of Young's beer and some decent food in a quiet atmosphere as determinedly separate from the hooting carnage outside as it is possible to get. Excellent staff and a surreally impressive landlord. Not reviewed yet.

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