The Fox, Hanwell

"I am pointing out serious health and safety issues that not only affect local residents but also the people who use the pub."

Quite right, sir, quite right. And you keep at it. And don't let anyone cast aspersions on your motives. I mean, someone more amateurish, when looking to prevent imminent death from serious safety hazards, might alert the police, the council, the licencing authority. Not you, no sir. None of that time-wasting nonsense for you. You got straight to the point.

"Ah ha!", says you, "a pub review site someone reads once a year. That'll get the problem sorted by end of day or I'm a Dutchman".

(Presumably you're persona non grata with the rossers since you called them round to investigate a bonfire on Bonfire Night - I'm sure the policeman's comments weren't really directed at you. I mean, the mere suggestion made one's eyes water)

"The sad, old line of not buying a property adjacent to a pub is trotted out time and time again."

Yes, probably since just after they built the pub in 1850.

8 May 2014 15:41

The Fox, Hanwell

@Keepthenoisedown

Sir, I certainly admire you. Your complete lack of embarrassment at not only being an enormous arse but advertising it on the internet is something I can only admire from afar.

You have a valid complaint, obviously. When you bought your house six or seven years ago, it was incredibly sneaky and underhand of someone to surreptitiously erect a pub not five metres from your windows a mere 150 years before you moved in. How were you to know the public house opposite may be open to the public. Next they'll be telling you people are drinking alcohol in there.

I know how you feel though. I bought a house next to a big, empty stadium shaped building in Wembley. I wish the owners well, of course - don't get me wrong - but I'm going to have to report them to the police. They have the most inconsiderate habit of inviting an extraordinary number of people over to watch 'football' and sing silly songs. Now, I'm no party pooper, but this monkey business has to stop.

28 Oct 2013 22:22

The Waggon and Horses, Elstree

Have family visiting from Australia, so brought them here today for lunch to see an old pub in a leafy bit of the country. Original part was built in the fifteenth century apparently. It looks much as you'd expect - low ceilings, wood beams, a couple of fire places - all very nice, and there's a cute tea room tucked away inside. The choice of beer was pretty ordinary - Speckled Hen and Hobgoblin - but the food was good quality pub grub and came in pretty generous portions.

All in all it's a nice place and well worth a visit, but what really made the pub stand out was the barmaid, a beautiful blonde girl who never stopped smiling, was kind, welcoming, enthusiastic, couldn't have been more helpful, was just utterly charming. Such a change from the usual grim-faced depressives. If the management ever read this, you should definitely pay her more. She's a gem!

19 Sep 2011 20:24

The Fox, Hanwell

Firstly, the good stuff. I've been coming to this pub for a decade, about the same time the current owners have run it. It's easily the best pub in the area, and in some ways one of the best you'll ever go to. It's a genuine, friendly local, full of nice people and nice staff, but still very welcoming to visitors. People wander off to the loo or for a smoke, leaving phones, wallets, all sorts sitting on the bar, never a thought anyone would take them. There are never any fights or rows, no drunken stupidity, no hooligans or yobs. It's a second home to a lot of people in Hanwell. It's basically a village pub in a little enclave of London. If you're looking for a pint in the area, it's definitely the pub to visit.

Now for the not so good, and I only say it in the hope it might spur the owners to change a few things. For a while now, commented on by many of the locals, there's been a sense of having absentee landlords, that they're happy to let things tick over and drift. Unfortunately, it's drifting downhill. There's no manager, just ever changing shifts of bar staff. The beers (three regulars and two guest), once excellent, are now average at best and often, like the last few days, terrible, undrinkable. When none of the beers are drinkable, there's not much else to tempt, either. The lagers on tap are all virtually identical - Fosters/Carlsberg/etc - no Leffe or Weissbier for variety. The fridge is packed with cider in the middle of winter, and four bottled lagers no one ever drinks. Why not lose some of the cider and put a few bottles of decent beer in there? And the wine list, geez. It's been commented on for years, but the wine is still execrable. Every time a decent wine pops up by accident, it disappears again, and we're left with the same rubbish (half of which is never in stock anyway). If there's nothing for us to drink, we're going to be hard pushed to spend any time (or money) in the place.

- Sort out the beer, please
-Get some decent wine and stick with it
-Stop saying 'that's good enough to get away with' and start thinking about how the pub can improve
-Get some authority behind the bar. It's nice that the pub is dog and child friendly, on during Sunday lunch you expect it, but someone has to tell a few notable people that having their kids running laps of the pub and screaming at 9 o'clock is not appropriate. It's not a ruddy creche.
-Ask yourselves why some regulars you used to see six days a week barely come in anymore.

I love this pub. PLEASE pull your fingers out and do something about it before it's too late.

21 Feb 2011 14:53