Churchill Arms

A haven on Kensington Church Street. Decent beer, no nouveau designer stuff, it is what it is, a very nice pub. It has been updated sympathetically but it has not lost its old charm. It still retains just enough interesting nooks, crannies and hairy old drinkers.The Thai food was top notch the last time I eat here but that was 5 years ago to be fair.

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The Churchill Arms Pub is a five-minute walk from Notting Hill tube station, on Kensington Church Street. When you first walk in, it looks like yet another run-down, run-of-the-mill pub. You smell beer everywhere, and you see faded red carpeting and dark, heavy wood furniture and paneling. But what’s great about the Churchill Arms is that in the back, there’s a really delicious and cheap Thai restaurant. Walking into the Thai restaurant part of the pub feels like walking into an enchanted garden. There’s a riot of flowering plants hanging from the ceiling, a stone tiled floor, and the sound of water running from an indoor fountain. The restaurant is always crowded, but the wait is short, probably because the menu offers only twenty standard Thai dishes (and no appetizers). I got a prawn pad thai for £6. That’s about 2/3 the price of my lunch every day at Canary Wharf.

You might think the Thai-restaurant-in-a-pub concept is really unusual, but surprise, surprise, there are a lot of “Thai pubs” in London. I’m not sure how this phenomenon came about. Probably a Thai family took over a pub and when that place took off, other Thai families followed the pattern? Anyway, of the Thai pubs we’ve been to, the Churchill Arms is my favorite for the charm of its dining area, the freshness of the dishes, and the extremely low cost. My one complaint is that when the restaurant serves you something “spicy,” it never actually is.

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London Pubs Group Tour of Notting Hill, Kensington and Bayswater

Built in the Victorian era but given a complete internal refit between the wars, this pub is not a listed building but is on the London Regional Inventory. There would have been separate rooms of course at that time but although the partitions have gone, leaving a U-shaped drinking area wrapping round the servery, most of the rest of the c.1930 work survives.

The windows are very attractive with their canted bays and charming art-nouveau-inspired stained glass details. Then there is the bar counter which has two distinctly different designs from the counter front in the left-hand parts. Most of it has panels with triple mouldings round them but the smaller, right-hand part is much plainer. This makes it clear that they must have been separated by a partition and, if you look closely, you can see in the window-sill a small piece of patching where the old screen stood.

The walls are extensively panelled and there are a couple of pretty tiled fireplaces. There are two sets of snob-screens mounted on the counter but their age is a moot point. When the present licensee came in the mid-1980s they formed a continuous run but it's hard to believe such an intrusive feature would have been installed in the 1930s when people favoured unencumbered counters. For a Fullers pub it was not surprising that London Pride, ESB and Chiswick were available, plus a seasonal 3.8% 'Swing Low' which was no doubt being appreciated by, and pitched at, the many of those watching the rugby on TV.

http://www.camranorthlondon.org.uk/londonpubsgroup/crawls.htm

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The Churchill Arms is one of the local pubs in my area. It's located on Kensington Church St, not far from Notting Hill Gate Underground Station. I like it because it's sort of quirky looking with lots of hanging baskets on the oustide of the pub (as you can see from the picture). The bar area is pretty small, but in the summertime it's actually quite nice just to stand outside. There is also a restaurant area that has been recognised for it's great Thai food, which is delicious and pretty inexpensive. They also do three types of roast dinner on a Sunday. A really lovely pub in a nice area with friendly staff. Definitely recommend going there.

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In London for a meeting, and went to the pub with 3 colleagues. This is a lovely old fashioned English pub, with the strange but delightful combination of pub and Thai restaurant. You can eat in the restaurant, or in the pub. The place was extremely busy, (this was a Monday evening) which in itself says a lot about the quality of the establishment. The Thai food was delicious. The beer great. If you don't like spicy food- don't go to a Thai restaurant! (although the menu does have mild curries too- the clue is in the info on the menu-count the butterflies!! 0 = mild, 3 = hot, hot, hot. Rocket science. Not.) Restaurant was extremely busy- so I would recommend booking in advance. The atmosphere is yours for the making- no loud thumping acid house techno beats- just the hubub of human beings actually talking to one another. Superb! Nothing at all to complain about. In fact, the best Thai green curry I've ever had (and I've had one or two). Magnificent!

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