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Newark Castle, Castlegate, Newark, Nottinghamshire, NG24 1BG
24-26 May 2024
The Drill, Free School Lane, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN2 1EY
23-25 May 2024
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The Old Station Yard, Station Road, Hadnall, SY4 3DD
A Fuller's pub bought by the brewery early in 2012, it was tenanted to MC Bars until June 2023 when it became a managed house, undergoing redecoration and refurbishment in early 2024 in a style sympathetic to its heritage features. The cask beer range has been modestly expanded and now includes a Fuller's seasonal plus a guest, and there are some rotating guest 'craft kegs' and Belgian bottles too. A large pub on a corner site, it was built for the Royal Brewery of Brentford in 1909 and is a particularly beautiful and well-preserved example of the work of renowned pub architect T H Nowell Parr. Now Grade II-listed and with a three star heritage interior, it retains a four-room layout. The rear room is occupied by a Thai restaurant operated by a third party, open daily.
Historic Interest
Grade II listing:- 1909 by Thomas Henry Nowell Parr for the Royal Brewery, Brentford. Rendered brick with granite plinth; gabled plain tile roof; corniced brick stacks. Domestic Revival style. 2 storeys, with 3-bay elevations to both Leighton Road and Seaford Road. Continuous ground-floor frontage, set on granite plinth and divided by piers with green tile facings, is linked by decorative iron railings surmounting dentilled cornice and plain fascia; original half-glazed doors set behind rounded open porch with Tuscan columns to corner, and two segmental-pedimented porches with Tuscan columns to Leighton Road; bracketed pediment over half-glazed door to public bar in centre of Seaford Road elevation; Tripartite wood-mullioned and transomed windows with 4-centred arches to lower lights and stained glass to upper lights. First floor has gauged red brick cambered arches over 3-light sashes flanked by shutters; two outer bays to Leighton Road have similar sashes to bow windows set beneath carved brackets supporting projecting gables with dentilled cornices continued round to Seaford Road elevation which has similar gable set over cornice and recessed first-floor bay. Left-hand return has conservatory to front of projecting bay with French window and flanking windows with glazing bars and stained glass upper lights. Interior: complete pub interior, with public bar to right of large saloon bar which opens onto restaurant to rear. Beamed ceilings; panelled dados; neo-Georgian fireplaces; mahogany bar counter and fittings with pilasters framing mirrors; Tudor-arched doors, with pedimented screens to saloon; saloon bar has panelled bar partitions; public bar has benches set against wall with turned balusters. The Forester is the most celebrated of Nowell Parr's pub designs, which formed a transition between the ornate pubs of the 1890s, divided into compartments, and the move restrained neo-Georgian and Tudor open-plan pubs of the inter-war period. (The Graphic, April 3 1909)
Three star - A pub interior of outstanding national historic importance
Listed status: II
A fine example of Edwardian suburban pub-building, The Forester still retains four of its original rooms, plus the only known example in London of bell pushes that hitherto were for ordering table service.
Built in 1909 to designs by T. H. Nowell Parr for the Royal Brewery of Brentford. Parr provided a most distinctive piece of architecture, notable for its columned porticoes, green-glazed brickwork and prominent gables. The Forester shows a shift away from late-Victorian glitz and glitter towards a more restrained style. In all there are four rooms. There were originally five plus the (disused) off-sales on Seaford Road, the reduction being caused by the amalgamation of the two rooms on Seaford Road to form the public bar. There are two rooms facing Leighton Road and the one on the left has the remarkable distinction of possessing the only historic bell-pushes for waiter service known in a London pub.
There are some fine furnishings at the Forester. The servery still has its original counter and bar-backs which display a number of Tudor arches, a favourite motif of Parr’s. There are a couple of Edwardian fireplaces complete with the green tilework and in the public bar there are long-defunct remnants of gas lighting. There are also some delightful floral Art Nouveau-style stained glass panels in the windows. In the heart of the servery is an office for the publican, and there are doors in the counters for gaining access to service the beer engines in former times.
A fine example of Edwardian suburban pub-building, erected in 1909 to designs by T. H. Nowell Parr for the Royal Brewery of Brentford. Parr provided a most distinctive piece of architecture, notable for its columned porticoes, green-glazed brickwork and prominent gables. Like Parr’s Three Horseshoes, Southall, UB1, (now sadly permanently closed and converted to residential use) the Forester shows a shift away from late-Victorian glitz and glitter towards a more restrained style. In all there are four rooms. There were originally five plus the (disused) off-sales (with 1960s bar fittings) on Seaford Road, the reduction being caused by the amalgamation of the two rooms to form the public bar. There are two rooms facing Leighton Road and one of these (the Saloon on the left) has the remarkable distinction of possessing the only historic bell-pushes that used to be for summoning waiter service known in a London pub. For the avoidance of doubt they even have the word ‘BELL’ above them! Apart from their rarity, they are curious in that there is a perfectly decent bar counter in this room where able-bodied drinkers might reasonably have been expected to order their drinks!
There are some fine furnishings at the Forester. The servery still has its original counter and bar-backs which display a number of Tudor arches, a favourite motif of Parr’s. There are a couple of Edwardian fireplaces complete with the green tilework and in the public bar there are long-defunct remnants of gas lighting. There are also some delightful floral Art Nouveau-style stained glass panels in the windows. In the heart of the servery is an office for the publican.
There are doors in the counters for gaining access to service the beer engines in former times. The rear lounge is given over to well-regarded Thai food.
The pub reopened in March 2024 after a short period of closure. It has benefitted from sensitive redecoration and a deep clean and polish.
History across the road: The allotments on the eastern side of Northfield Avenue have been there since 1832. The allotments were established next to market gardens and orchards which proliferated in this area.
This Pub serves 2 changing beers and 3 regular beers.
Forester, West Ealing
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