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03-01-2019, 08:00
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We spent the gap between Christmas and New Year in West London, on the hunt for Proper Pubs. Four stood out and we’re going to give each one its own post.Jess first visited the Forester in Northfields, Ealing, in 2017, during research for 20th Century Pub, and has been trying to get Ray there ever since. It’s of academic interest, being built in 1909 as an early Improved Pub to a design by Nowell-Parr (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowell_Parr), and retaining a multi-room layout with lots of period details.
It also happens to be a suburban backstreet corner pub – our current favourite thing (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/11/the-distant-gleam-of-a-backstreet-pub/). As we approached, it peeked into view between the corner shops and terraced houses, like a steampunk cruise ship at berth.
It’s a Fuller’s pub, too, which means touches of the corporate, but not to an oppressive degree. It helps that the light is kept low and (not to everyone’s taste, we know) the music loud, so every table feels like its own warm bubble.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pub_forester_ealing_interior_650.jpg
The locals seemed well-to-do without being posh, sinking beer and gin, and throwing out the odd raucous joke: “Bloody hell! When you bent over then, Steve… Either you’re wearing a black thong or you forget to wipe your arse.”
They ignored parties of outsiders – a group of what we took for professional footballers on tour, all designer shirts and hair product; a trio of twentysomethings, apparently from the middle east, when-in-Rome-ing with pints of Guinness – without apparent malice.
The beer was excellent, too – Fuller’s as Fuller’s should be served, gleaming and brilliant beneath clean arctic foam. The ESB in particular was hard to resist, demanding to be treated like a session beer, which maybe it is at Christmas.
We made time to visit twice during a four-night trip, which should tell you something. You might find it worth a detour next time you’re in London.
News Pubs and Old Favourites #1: The Forester, Ealing (https://boakandbailey.com/2019/01/news-pubs-and-old-favourites-1-the-forester-ealing/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)


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