The Dukes Head, Putney

Jumped the gun a bit here by sneaking in to the residents' preview tonight and I have to say: it's a bit alright, this is.

So - yes - they've gone regulation gastro (artisanal benches and dun emuslsions with shabchic detailing); but they've kept enough of the really nice stuff - the old glass especially - to make this doing-up feel like less of a doing-over. Certainly retained enough to survive the panderings to the new world chardonnay drinker whose limited attention span seems to drive the business, nowadayz.

It's still a pub, most importantly, and that's a good thing.

But... the front bars as they were are no more - Footie is nicht erlaubt - and neither is smoking. The long-defunct skittles have gone also, as have the agricultural gents. The new gents are poncey and despicably 21c and will look wrecked in a fortnight. (Important note to pub refurbers: downlighters make loos hot and smelly and this makes gentlemen drinkers irritable and less-inclined to hit the porcelain. Give us a cold tiled room with a tin trough and neon strip lighting or - better still - no lighting at all. It's what we want: it's what we deserve.)

Still - as a whole it could have been terrible and it's actually very nice so that's a good thing.

29 Oct 2006 00:13

The Sun Inn, Barnes

Take a great historic old pub in an amazing location with wealthy customers on your doorstep and... make it the worst pub in Barnes! Yay!

I could just about forgive the dingy wannabe Ibiza chillout cum Changing Rooms brothel decor (which was surely pass� in 1994) if it weren't for the preposterously useless space cadet staff and wallet-bleedingly expensive and poorly-kept drinks.

One of the most weirdly unpleasant pubs I know.

25 Oct 2006 15:16

Star and Garter, Putney

It's bad but it's not that bad. The food's bland, the drink's poor and overpriced and the whole thing is a sad drab cliche of a 90's bar; but it can actually be a very nice place for a spot of lunch and there are worse places in Putney (shame on Putney). However, it's a real shame when you think how good it could be in the right hands. It's painted plum: It's called 'Bar M'. Whoever's responsible deserves to be beaten soundly with a pointy stick.

2 Oct 2006 23:57