Ye Olde White Bear, Hampstead

Still rubbish...

18 Mar 2011 16:17

The Duke of Hamilton, Hampstead

The new landlord's hype said that �170,000 had been spent on the refurb. After paying a visit it is hard to see where a tenth of that has gone but that's not such a bad thing.
The guv'nor Steve (or 'The Cock' as I've heard he refers to himself) has spruced up the place, painted the outside (red), laid new carpets (red), redecorated the interior (red) and redone the toilets (you guessed - red) although for the aforementioned sum perhaps they didn't have to remain outside! Having said that, the pub is thankfully still a pub.
Ales are varied and excellent, carrying on the tradition for which the Duke had a reputation. London Pride is back on, even though the new landlord refused to stock it at first. The top shelf could be a little bigger but there is food where there was none before; fish & chips, sausage & mash etc. The Scotch Eggs too are rather nice. On the whole it's a vast improvement on the tired place it had become.
I'm sure after a while the pub will regain its lived-in feel as at the moment it feels very new. And once the regulars have regained their territory and shown 'The Cock' the path he should tread, this will be a very nice pub indeed!

Definitely worth a visit!

18 Mar 2011 16:10

Ye Olde White Bear, Hampstead

DISGRACEFUL! Not content with ruining the place, the new owners have taken it upon themselves to rename the place: it is now THE OLD WHITE BEAR. How can this have been allowed to happen? Even The Wells was prevented from dropping the 'Tavern' suffix when it changed to gastro status! Obviously the name that was good enough for the last hundred years or so is not good enough for the new kids on the block. Probably not trendy enough. Or maybe they just couldn't spell it! Another piece of Hampstead's history down the drain...

And as for George Smiler, what planet are you on?!? How can the decline of Hampstead's pubs be down to us? We're the ones who patronise the places! We don't want them to change into yet another gastropub. We don't want less and less places to go for a pint. Just because we don't have the odd �100k lying around to buy every lease that gets sold doesn't mean that we're to blame for yet another pub biting the dust. Indeed, fault may lie at someone's door but it certainly does not lie at the door of the the many regulars who frequent Hampstead's remaining hostelries on a near daily basis. Wake up and smell the hops!

3 Jun 2010 18:23