The Black Horse, Greenford

This is a very smart Fullers pub with a picturesque canal side location and a nice multiple room layout. You enter directly to the bar, with the servery opposite the front door and a couple of rooms off to either side. The bar has a tidy wood panelled counter and traditional bar back with quarry stone flooring along its entire length. To the right, a series of split-level areas emerge, the front part of which was full of standard tables and chairs almost exclusively set up with reserved signs for groups of locals. This gives way to a rear section, partitioned by a glass screen with views out to the canal. There are plenty of tables and chairs crammed into this space, but it seemed very popular, forcing me instead to find a seat in the left-hand public bar. This is a part-bare boarded room with some sections of carpet, furnished with chairs, high stools and a pew. Black and white photos of the canal and various local landmarks line the walls, a dartboard area can be found to the rear, although the board itself is currently missing, attested to only by the large, well-stocked trophy cabinet. TV screens throughout the pub were showing Sky Sports News with the commentary audible on at least one of them and I found myself sat near two old boys who were spouting a load of ridiculous Covid conspiracy theories that all seemed to contradict each other. I noticed three cask ales at the bar, although no sooner had I entered than I was being asked to fill in my track and trace details before being whisked around to my table by the highly efficient barmaid who greeted me, so I may well have missed some. The options I saw were Fullers London Pride and ESB and Dark Star Hophead and the latter was in good nick and brought over to my table almost instantly. This is a nice little pub with a good selection of seating areas, comfortable furniture, a decent atmosphere and efficient staff serving decent beer. The canal side location looked like it could be a real winner in the summer months and with few other worthy pubs in the vicinity, I’d say this is well worth checking out if you’re in the area.

Quite an attractive Fuller's pub beside the Grand Union Canal. The two-part bar is accessed from the road cross the overbridge, with a seating / dining area (with full-height windows on two sides) located up a half-flight of stairs and another room downstairs (with beer garden beyond) at towpath level. All tidily furnished and decorated. Ale-wise, I found Pride, ESB and the seasonal Snow Globe available from a total of seven handpumps divided between the two counters, and for a change taking a taster tray of three 1/3rds (£4.00).

My visit last week found this pub to be essentially unchanged since previous reviewers' visits. It enjoys an enviable location right beside the Grand Union Canal, and I can see why anyone either walking down the towpath or on a narrow boat would want to stop for some refreshment here. But the main bar is fairly unremarkable, although it's comfortable and functional enough. There's also a large extension on two levels built at the back of the pub to maximise the canal views I guess, plus a large garden which was of course unused on the cold and wet October day on which I visited. It's still a Fuller's pub, which had three of their ales on - London Pride (of course), ESB, and Oliver's Island (£1.75 a half). Like Fuller's pubs in general, food is available. This one seemed to have a reasonable menu, with main courses around the £10 - £12 mark (pie of the day, with mash and veg is £10.50), and sarnies around £5 - £6. This is a fairly straightforward and unpretentious pub. Furnishings seem to be almost entirely normal tables and chairs, a saw at least one large flatscreen TV, plus some live entertainment advertised - in paricular the one and only Stan Bland Band. This isn't a destination pub, but is handily placed for anyone making use of the canal.

A large comfortable and well appointed pub situated next to The Grand Union Canal. Several interconnected areas, but each with a different feel, the return area to the left of the bar has a dartboard, whereas to the right the ambience is more sedate and looks like the preferred area for eating. The split level extension at the back makes the pub though, giving remarkably peaceful canal views both from the upper room and its covered terrace and the garden below with its own ground floor bar. The garden was particularly pleasant today with some welcome early March sunshine. Still just the three Fullers beers across the pumps, Pride, ESB and seasonal Flankers Tackle, the Pride was £3.10 which is considerably cheaper than I've been charged lately in other Fullers pubs (unless of course I got the wrong change!) Plenty of canal related decor, maps, prints and diagrams of boats etc. I liked it here and no doubt the friendly chatty service was a factor in this.