Notting Hill Gate

The Old Swan

206 Kensington Church St, London, W8 4DP

Date of Visit : 27th April 2005
Approx. Time of Visit: 9.00pm

Route Used: Circle from Bayswater
Distance Traveled : 0.49 miles

Guests: 1 and 2
Clientele: young casuals, one old fella

Pub Number : 009

Characteristics	Rating	Comments
Ambience		fine, just people sitting around chatting, big windows at the front would be nice in summer
Facilities		no tv, couple of fruits, itbox quiz machine
Ladies		no barmaids, but there was a decent amount of couples in here, knocking up the F:M ratio nicely. Phantom "split-skirt" allegedly

OVERALL

an average pub. no harm in popping if you're in the area

GUEST 2 had this one earmarked, but we had to follow the official rules on pub selection and the Swan narrowly avoided exclusion by recently changing from being a chain, but it was a qualifier and visible from the station exit. Fighting our way past the pseudo-trendy/tramp mixture that is Notting Hill, we entered the pub which has a nice open front but a worryingly small bar frontage - could be a problem on busy nights. This was compounded by there being only one bar staff - and a curly haired noncy looking fella at that. Some brief banter took place with the barman on the MD project and philosophy, but after being winked at, GUEST 1 was in danger of finding an unwanted bed for the night, so had to be swiftly rescued and we moved to sit near the window. At least the guy was honest and said laughingly that the barmaid rating would be zilch as no women worked there. Mmmm, very interesting. Could this be our first "pink pub"? A quick appraisal of the clientele revealed a couple of jarvis cocker types laughing away. They looked like possibles at first look, but they were with women and it was obvious they were up to the old "try and connect with women by acting like them" chestnut. I suppose it must work for someone. Anyway..... the noting of an old geezer and the general crowd meant that we had not stumbled into a gay pub at all, that little nugget of enjoyment could still be to come.... All this sexuality sloblock has probably given away the fact that there really isn't much to say about this place. Allegedly there was a nice split skirt experience for some of guys, but as I am bitter about missing it, I won't give that any credence. So generally, it was OK, and interestingly had the same menus as the Globe and the Dickens from earlier in the evening - we had obviously found a little localised food supplier - but was nothing to write home about at all. But Lancaster Gate would prove to be a different story....

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