The Wilton Arms, Fulham

First I must start by saying that I actually work in The Wilton Arms, so any comments I make must be taken with any bias you see fit to place upon me. I, however feel I shall give an honest review of this pub with my experience of sitting both behind and in front of the bar...

I arrived at the pub fairly recently, by means of previously working with the landlord who took over in 2005...

I was an actor working in Oxford and the oportunity to move to London and have a comfortable income coming in for when I wasn't on acting locations seemed an opportunity too good to refuse.

The pub is a typical local London pub, mixed social classes and races. Situated within Fulham this supports my statement, you have everyone from the rich and ahem, borderline famous; to the number who scrimp and save just for a few pints at their local (me falling into the latter category!)

There is a regualr pool team and darts team as well as a host of live music that perform throughout the week. The capacity can fluctuate from a few customers having a quiet drink to a mass karaoke filled party depending on when the atmsophere is in the air. This may or may not appeal to everyone's tastes but as I always say "A night is what you make it..."

The barstaff are friendly and approachable with a mixture of young part-time workers, to the old veterans who have been involved with this pub for decades. I cannot speak for myself in this but from the reaction of my collegues, this is the true impression I get.

The prices I feel are cheap for London, however, I have been informed that there are cheaper places to go, in this argument I feel that commercial chain pubs are slowly drowning the lypical local and in it's efforts have made the 'local' somewhat a rarity. But what the chain pubs cannot supply is the feel of a family. The notion of being acknowledged and welcomed in a public house as if it was your private house (see what I did there!)

The general take I get off the pub is don't walk into the place with any stand-offish attitude as the locals always ready to take the mickey. I'm dumbfounded at the amount of times a simple comment has been re-arranged into a mock of the Welsh! (I'm Weslh by the way) all is taken in good humour and no offence is intended, indeed, I give as good as I get.

The keywords of this pub I would say are Good Laugh, Party Attitude, Local, Family, Londoner and Re-building (this last word is because the landlord I came down with has done a runner and left us high and dry, and so it is a re-building process)

Signed - An over-worked Barman

16 Mar 2006 00:05