Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of)

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Central Bar

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Central Bar

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    This is another of my posts trying to tidy up some of the Good Beer Guide listed pubs that I’ve visited but never written up. The downside is that I have very limited photos of them so this is hardly going to win any awards, but there we go, I’ve only got to cater to about two readers so that makes things easier.

    The pub is operated by JD Wetherspoon, who opened it in 2002, and they have two other venues with the same name, the others are in Cardiff and Carrickfergus, but this one relates to the Central Line:

    “This pub is on the first floor of the W12 Centre, opposite the Central Line underground station. The railway came to Shepherds Bush in May 1844, to close only a few months later. The first proper local service came with the opening of the Hammersmith and City Line, in 1864. The Central London Railway opened in 1900 and was renamed the Central Line in 1937.”

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    This was one of the cheap meals that were offered for many years, chicken wrap and chips, but the prices have gone up sharply over recent months.

    Back to the venue, and once again apologies for the lack of photos of the interior, but the pub is located in a shopping centre and so it’s quite a generic and dull open plan set-up. For a JD Wetherspoon outlet it’s relatively badly reviewed, although I can’t say that I’ve had any particular problems here during my visits.

    One customer has a photo of their food with a comment noting “Steak and pork loin cremated on my mixed grill with zero sympathy from the manageress” and he isn’t exaggerating, the photo shows food which shouldn’t have been served. On this point, there are two reviews of poor food where the customer has eaten nearly all of it and then taken a photo of the now nearly empty plate, I’m always humoured by the those reviews.

    A few customers have complained that a QPR ticket is required to enter the venue when the team are playing at home, which is no doubt more for licensing issues but I can imagine it’s a little annoying for visitors who don’t think to check when the local team is playing. The pub serves alcohol from a later time in the morning when QPR are playing, which sounds very sensible to be fair.

    “The management was kicking me out because me and my friend ate a burger that was not ordered by us “

    I can understand where the management are coming from…..

    “Asked for a classic 6oz beef burger with cheese and bacon no salad and the moron behind the bar somehow managed to hear “original gourmet beef burger” instead”

    This from a customer who managed to order the wrong thing, didn’t notice they were charged more for the food, didn’t notice their receipt and calls the member of bar staff “a moron”….. I make no comment.

    Anyway, I’ve once again digressed. At the time of writing, this venue has seven real ales which are priced between £1.71 and £2.96, very thrifty options there, including Oakham’s Citra and Elgood’s Patron Saint. Just on that selection of real ale and pricing, it’s no surprise that it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide.

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Apprentice You’re Fired Recording

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Apprentice You’re Fired Recording

    I got a ticket to see the third episode of the Apprentice – You’re Fired being filmed and this is the delight of the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. I managed to stand in the wrong queue last week when waiting to watch the Unbelievable Truth being recorded as I should have been in the priority queue, but here there was just one queue and that was something that confused a fair few people who tried to walk straight to the front of the queue. I didn’t walk to the front of the queue as I’m not that brave to check such things, but I was impressed at the nerve of those people who did. Although they then looked sheepish walking back again.

    There were thorough checks here unlike in other things I’ve been to recently, they needed to see proof of vaccination and proof of a negative test, hence the delay in proceedings to get everyone in. It was all efficiently managed though and the staff were keen to be helpful to everyone, which boded well.

    Before the recording started it was fine to take photos, but after the floor manager gave an introduction to the process then phones were entirely banned from proceedings. There were some dire warnings made if anyone tried to use their phone during the recording and I didn’t see anyone brave enough to try and break the rules. We then got to watch this week’s episode of the Apprentice before the You’re Fired show was recorded.

    And the rest I can’t say anything about as the episode doesn’t broadcast until Thursday, but it was interesting to watch how the programme was made. I was at the end of a row and the crane camera was very near to me when it panned across, so my hope of hiding in the background probably won’t have been met, but there we go….. I was told that I could wear my usual face mask if I wanted (my LDWA branded one), but I opted for a medical mask so I looked slightly more in keeping with most other people in the audience. One man was told twice to put his mask over his nose, but he ignored that and there wasn’t much they could do when filming had started.

    Incidentally, I noted a few people tried to take the Hired and Fired card, even though they asked everyone not to. I think they managed to reclaim a fair few of them from leaving the studio and I decided a photo of it was all that I needed. The filming was a bit laborious in places, but they met the time schedules we had been given, so everything remained professional. An interesting experience and I’d go again in the future if I got chance, although you can only be in the audience for one episode per series.

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Holiday Inn Express Hammersmith

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Holiday Inn Express Hammersmith

    This is my second visit to this hotel (it seems I couldn’t be bothered to write up the first visit) although it’s the first now that lockdown has come to some sort of end. Located next to the Plough & Harrow pub which is operated by JD Wetherspoon, it’s about a six minute walk or so to either Hammersmith station or to Ravenscourt Park station. I got this night courtesy of IHG’s reward scheme, which has been rather generous this year.

    The room, all brand standard, clean and tidy. I’m not entirely convinced that desks that size are entirely ideal, but it suffices and there are plenty of power points around the room.

    The view from my window, a bit of a construction site, but there was no noise from it. There were more internal noise problems of doors slamming, something which wasn’t entirely ideal.

    Well, it has been known…..

    The welcome drink and the choice of beers was adequate, but I’m content with this Goose Island option. I’m not sure for what reason this drink seems to now be so commonplace in IHG and Accor hotels, but I’m not disappointed that it is.

    Some of the breakfast selection, all of which is included in the room rate.

    And the rest of it. All back to self-service, as last time I visited there were just bacon and sausage rolls which had to be taken back to the room.

    The breakfast area is large, clean and modern, being use as a bar and restaurant in the evening. Plenty of power points dotted around here as well. I was perfectly content with the bacon, which was crispy and slightly burnt (which is how I think it should always be served) and the other breakfast ingredients. They’re not hugely decadent, but it’s a free breakfast offering and there’s a limit to what’s viable here. I went down at around 07:00 and it wasn’t busy, with the signs around the hotel saying that breakfast only really gets busy after 09:00.

    I had a look at the reviews of the hotel, and they’re adequate, nothing overly positive, but nothing particularly concerning either although they’re oddly much more complimentary on TripAdvisor. It seems that they had a debacle last month, judging by a heap of negativity, with a fire alarm being set off overnight by a drunk guest. The negativity seems to relate to that the staff didn’t know what to do, which really is not an ideal situation and that would have annoyed me too. Otherwise though, I didn’t find any reviews that amused me, which was a little disappointing.

    The staff at the hotel were professional, friendly and helpful, so there was nothing wrong with the welcome. The hotel is quite reasonably priced for reward nights, so I’ll likely return here again, as well as being relatively close to central London and also not inconvenient for Heathrow as it’s near to the Piccadilly line.

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Ibis Earls Court

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Ibis Earls Court

    I’ve written about this hotel a couple of times before (Earls Court Ibis and Earls Court Ibis) although I’ve stayed here on around eight or nine occasions now I think. I thought I’ll add this visit just because it’s the first time that I’ve been since the on-site pub has opened, it’s never been busy enough before for them to open. I admit that it’s not hugely breaking news, but it’s something new…. This is a hotel where conferences usually take place, so I can imagine that this gets very busy when these are in full flow.

    This is the former bar, which is just now part of the general reception area. There was quite a queue for check-in, typically when I was in a rush and I needed to be on a Zoom call and had just been stuck on the Victoria line for over half an hour. I tried to look slightly annoyed but there was little point as the staff were working through the queue quickly and they were polite with large smiles. The staff member who checked me in was bouncy and welcoming, mentioning that he had the same first name as me which was a reminder he had been at reception the last two times I’d visited. The reception staff here always seem friendly, it’s a positive introduction for guests.

    All of my previous visits have seen me placed higher up the building (as in on a higher floor, not on the roof), with some rather lovely views, but I was down on the third floor this time. I suspect that they’ve done up the rooms in the higher levels of the hotel with a more modern design, as this is the older Ibis room interior. However, it’s still clean and functional. This remains one of the few hotels that keeps Bibles in the room, something that I haven’t seen for some time.

    I haven’t seen an Accor hotel do this for a while, but these have the dual purpose of being decorative and also advertising other locations from the brand around the world. A nice touch I think, JD Wetherspoon used to do this in their pubs as well to advertise new openings from around the country.

    Anyway, this is the hotel’s own little pub which is located on the first floor. The George and Dragon is designed to look like a traditional British pub and I quite like this, as often hotels go for something with a theme which isn’t local to their environment at all. Without generalising, this is at least something a little authentic for American guests and the like. I say authentic, it’s a hotel bar, but it’s all relative.

    There was a sizeable amount of space inside the pub, although it was also quite busy with many customers getting food as well as drink. It all looked a bit expensive, but since my drink was free I didn’t dwell on this matter for long. They looked a little short-staffed and empty plates started to pile up on most of the tables, but they seemed to be doing their best. These remain challenging times for the hospitality industry, so I’m just impressed that the hotel is still functioning.

    I found myself a high table to monitor proceedings from….

    The beer choice was acceptable, albeit a little orientated towards lagers, but there were at least some choices. I can always tolerate a nice Goose Island IPA for my welcome drink and they didn’t seem to have any limits on what I could pick as my free beverage.

    Anyway, another lovely stay with friendly staff, a clean environment and no noises issues either internally or externally. I shall hopefully stay here again, despite Accor annoying me (which I may have mentioned several times….)

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – West Brompton The Hub by Premier Inn

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – West Brompton The Hub by Premier Inn

    I like new hotel concepts and The Hub is Premier Inn’s attempt to create an on-trend accommodation option which has more flexibly sized rooms (by flexible, I mean smaller) which allows them to charge a little less. It’s not quite the capsule style as the rooms are larger than that, but they are of course much smaller than traditional hotel rooms.

    The room with the television at the end of the bed and plenty of space for bags underneath the bed.

    The lighting controls are at the end of the bed.

    This table pulls out to provide an element of desk space. The bottle of water is free and although there are no coffee or tea facilities in the room, they are available free of charge downstairs.

    The view from the end of the bed.

    There is a large television and it allows mirroring from smartphones, so this is what happens when you do that and point the phone towards the television. I accept, I need to get out more….

    The bathroom, which is pretty much the same size as in most hotel rooms.

    When I stayed in India, it was common for a digital display outside the room to indicate whether the guest wanted to have their room cleaned or whether they wanted privacy. I’ve wondered when this would come across to Europe in more hotels at a budget level, as it’s much better than hanging bits of card from the room door.

    The pricing was competitive, coming in at under £30 for the night and the hotel is just a very short walk from West Brompton underground station. I very much liked this concept, as the execution is brilliant. A lot of thought has gone into the design of the room to maximise space, and it is entirely functional. There’s storage space, a chair, desk, comfortable bed and a perfectly sized bathroom. The bin is in a cupboard (that’s more appropriate than it sounds) and the bottle of water is a nice little touch. The room was incredibly quiet, with no noise impact from either inside or outside of the hotel.

    I accept that the room isn’t ideal for romantic breaks or for families who need more space for their children and to argue, but as a place to stay I really rather like it. There are some larger rooms in the hotel, but there wasn’t a floor plan on the back of the door as there usually is to guide customers out in the event of a fire. That was a slight shame as I couldn’t establish just how the hotel was laid out in terms of how large the rooms are.

    There weren’t really any problems, I thought that the room in total darkness might be hard to find the control panel of lights, but it was still very slightly visible. I quickly checked the wi-fi and that was fast and functional. As for the staff member who checked me in, she was full of engagement and personality, so a credit to the hotel. There was a friendly checkout process as well (I say process, I put the key in a box and the staff called out asking if I had enjoyed my stay, so that works for me). London is competitively priced at the moment, but this could be an option I’ll consider in the future and Premier Inn have opened up a few of these already in the city.

    All really rather lovely.

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Fulham Travelodge

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Fulham Travelodge

    At the moment, I switch hotels to whichever seems to be the cheapest in London for the evening, with that exciting accolade going to Travelodge Fulham yesterday with their room for under £25 for the night. Easily accessible from the nearby Fulham Broadway underground station, it’s a convenient option for those coming from central London.

    It’s not exactly the most decadent choice, but it’s a serviceable hotel option and the staff members at the front desk were helpful and engaging. The public areas seemed clean, if not entirely well maintained, and one of the lifts had a missing button to get to one of the floors and that wasn’t entirely ideal.

    My room and this is the first time I’ve experienced a hotel in the UK that doesn’t have a duvet on the bed, just sheets. There was a reason for this, which was that the room was very hot and the building hasn’t been blessed with air conditioning. The duvet was though there in the room, in that blue bag in the corner, for anyone who wanted it.

    Richard was staying in the same hotel, and he looks for decadence and expense in everything, so he upgraded himself to a Super Room. In the interests of showing the difference, this is his room. I didn’t allow him in it until I had taken photographs of it, although fortunately he didn’t complain at that situation. It does have a nicer feel to it.

    The Super Room costs £5 per night more than the standard rate and for that the guest gets a coffee machine, a Kit Kat, nicer curtains, a nicer framed picture on the wall, a more comfortable (but less practical) chair and, well, that’s it. In some hotels, the guest would enjoy free air conditioning as well, but that wasn’t offered here. Richard did though get a fan that I didn’t get (although they’ve available at reception for us less decadent guests), so I think he felt his £5 was well spent. Incidentally, and I won’t go on about it, but Richard broke the coffee machine, but fortunately, I was there to ensure that the machine worked again. Sometimes you just need someone practical…..

    Although the hotel was quite hot, it is the case that London is quite hot at the moment, so that could perhaps be forgiven. Given the prices currently being charged, I thought that the value was really rather good, especially as there were no noise disturbances either externally or internally. The kettle in my room needed replacing, but I didn’t let that bother me, as I was busy collecting my free decadent coffee machine drinks from Richard’s room.

    The hotel is reasonably well reviewed, although on that review front, I did have a little browse through what guests had put on TripAdvisor. One reviewer had the title “teriminlly ill guest thrown out of hotel for having one ciggerate in room by manager” [sic] which is as it sounds, the guest decided to smoke in his room and was furious that the hotel was annoyed at this situation. The hotel unsurprisingly remained furious and stood by their decision.

    A few guests also noted that there was lovely air conditioning in reception and by the lifts, so they suggested moving bedding and sleeping there. To be fair, the reception area was kept beautifully cool, so that wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world, although I’d be interested to see what the staff thought about it if anyone tried. Another guest, also annoyed at the lack of air conditioning, posted a review titled “the oven of hell”, which summed up his experiences. He suggested, and this is a good strategy:

    “We had a fan on in the room, the curtains closed, window open, but the only way to sleep was to soak the towels in cold water and drape them over us whilst we slept!”

    He’s probably right though that it might have been better to put some form of air conditioning in rather than spend years fielding complaints from guests. The review about someone who left their phone charger is well worth a read, I can see why the staff soon got fed up with hearing about this phone charger.

    Anyway, I thought it was all clean and organised, so I’d happily stay here again, although only at a lower point. I note some guests paid over £100 for their rooms, and I can imagine why they were annoyed at the temperature issues.

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Hammersmith Bridge

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Hammersmith Bridge

    This is from my visit to London a couple of weeks ago and there’s something of a debacle about this whole Hammersmith Bridge arrangement. The bridge was first constructed here in 1827 and was paid for by tolls, with these charges finally being removed in 1880. All looked rather well for the local denizens, they had their bridge and they didn’t have to pay to use it. So, all rather lovely.

    Anyway, then a boat ran into the bridge in 1882, so it was thought that it had better be replaced. Joseph Bazalgette, best known for his construction of the London sewers, designed a new bridge and this sat on the same pillars as the previous structure.

    The bridge has struggled to cope with the weight of traffic placed on it throughout the twentieth century, it was never designed to deal with such volumes. It also hasn’t helped that the IRA have tried to blow it up in 1939, 1996 and 2000, all of which hardly helped with the structural integrity of the bridge.

    In 2014, the bridge was temporarily shut to motor traffic because of concerns about the safety of the structure, with this temporary closure effectively becoming permanent. A single bus was allowed to go over at any one time, but then Transport for London decided to remove its staff who were monitoring this, before an agreement was made. There has been a lot of arguing between Transport for London and the local council about this whole matter and who is paying for what, which seems to be the real reason for the delay. Cyclists and pedestrians were allowed to keep using the bridge, but then on 13 August 2020, this was then banned as well.

    The Government announced it was going to come up with a solution, but to cut a long story short, it announced that motor vehicles won’t be returning until at least 2027. I’m not sure how it takes that long to fix a bridge, but then I’m not a civil engineer…..

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Margravine Cemetery (Thomas Austin)

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Margravine Cemetery (Thomas Austin)

    This is the grave of Thomas Austin, located at Margravine Cemetery in London, which looked interesting due to the mention of Queen Victoria.

    He was born in 1816 and joined the army, although there’s lots more information about him (and a photo) at https://www.soldiersofthequeen.com/OldSoldiers-YeomanoftheGuardThomasAustin.html which it’s easier for me to just link to….. But, in short, since his army records are on-line, he served in the Coldstream Regiment of Guards, joining on 16 September 1833 and being given military service number 1666.

    Thomas died at the age of 79 on 17 February 1895, with his wife Frances Ann being buried at the same spot on 17 December 1903.

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Margravine Cemetery

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Margravine Cemetery

    This London cemetery was laid out in 1868, designed to relieve pressure on churchyards in the area, and the first burial took place here on 3 November 1869. It has also been known as Hammersmith Cemetery and there was an area for Church of England burials and another area for non-conformists.

    Burials continued here until 1951 and at this point the site was taken over by the council who termed it as a ‘garden of rest’. What this really meant is that the council took down a large number of gravestones and buried them, leaving what I think looks like a slightly disjointed and confused cemetery, albeit it in beautiful surroundings.

    The friends of the cemetery seem quite active and their web-site has an interesting take on the history of the site. They mention how sluggish the borough were in opening their burial ground, but an outbreak of cholera in the area speeded things up somewhat. The friends also note that the cemetery saw:

    “A superintendent’s drunken foul mouthed wife upsetting visitors and creating “a crowd” on Christmas Day 1879, belligerent gravediggers demanding higher wages and having fist-fights in the tool house, the nonconformists’ objections, the battle with Sir William Palliser and a fair amount of wheeling and dealing when acquiring or exchanging land”.

    Although I didn’t find his grave, George Wimpey of construction fame is buried at the cemetery. There are 83,000 burials at the site, although when it opened the cemetery was only designed to hold 12,000.

    This squirrel followed me for quite some time, but annoyingly was unwilling to pose for photos.

    There were a large number of dog walkers using the cemetery when I was there, but there’s plenty of space and it looked generally well cared for. Well, other than for the empty beer cans dotted about the site.

    The cemetery’s chapel, which was designed by the local architect George Saunders, who was also responsible for pretty much everything at the site. There was a second chapel at the cemetery, but this was demolished in 1939.

    I visited shortly before the cemetery was due to close, so my meandering was limited and I missed the “ghoulish” Victorian reception house. This building, where bodies were laid to rest, has now been listed and is the only one of its kind left in London. I’m not sure why Historic England thought it was ghoulish, it’s a place to store bodies in a cemetery before they were buried, but there we go….

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – The Dove

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – The Dove

    I walked to this riverside pub as it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide, a short walk from the centre of Hammersmith. There’s no shortage of history to this pub either, which was first opened in 1740 as Doves Coffee House. It became a pub in 1796 and it has been visited by Dylan Thomas, Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway and Alec Guinness.

    There is mention on-line, and indeed by the pub, that King Charles II and Nell Gwyn visited here, although I’m struggling to see how since they lived 100 years before the building was constructed. That link is just a bit too tenuous… There’s also a suggestion that James Thompson wrote the lyrics for ‘Rule Britannia’ when living here, although there’s not much evidence for that either. But it’s a nice thought.

    I was seated in the small bar which is said to be the smallest public bar in London, with five tables in it. There’s a larger dining area down some steps at the rear of this photo, but this remains a relatively small pub. I try to avoid taking photos with people in them, but I couldn’t avoid it with this one, hence the professional editing out.

    The bar was all nice and cosy, with half a pint of ESB, which is the best drink I can find in most Fuller’s pubs, and another pack of crisps. Main meals are served as well, although the prices are towards the higher end of the scale, £15 for mains and £8 for desserts, but the reviews of them are positive. The service I had was fast, efficient and polite, with the pub being clean and organised. I suspect it’s normally hard to get a table here given the decent reputation and it was full on Saturday afternoon, with some diners being fortunate enough to get a river view.

    Anyway, an interesting pub to visit…