Hare and Hounds, Greenford

Official site of Hare and Hounds - www.harehoundspub.co.uk

Official site of Hare and Hounds - www.harehoundspub.co.uk

Located on one of the main roads through Greenford, this is a decent sized Marstons pub that caught my eye when it appeared in a recent edition of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide. The pub has a traditional two-bar layout and with the current one-way system in place, you find yourself entering a spacious left-hand lounge bar, replete with plush seating under the front windows and to the left. The servery is to the right of the room and extends though into the rear part of the room, broken by a long, wood panelled partitioning wall that clearly denotes a former three bar layout. This rear space is carpeted and has high tables and stools to the front and some comfier seating along the left-hand wall, running past a fancy looking fireplace with a large TV screen above. From back here, a door leads you out to the good-sized patio garden with a long smoking shelter to the right and plenty of picnic benches filling the open space to the left. The second bar is accessed by a short passageway beyond the end of the servery, and has linoleum flooring, pastel shaded walls, a nice pitched ceiling and a mix of low and high tables mainly served by stools. The room has a public bar feel to it, which is emphasised by the various bits of sporting memorabilia dotted around the walls including old photos, drawings, art prints and framed signed shirts. The whole pub has been liberally fitted with TV screens which were variously showing live football, rugby and horse racing, with the commentary audible on a number of the screens. As with most pubs in this part of London, the staff were Irish and afforded me a very warm welcome, talking me through the logistics of my first pub visit since the new mask-wearing, table-service only rules came in. A small parking area out front was filled almost exclusively with white vans, which was a reasonable summation of the pub’s clientele. I was a little sceptical as to this pub’s inclusion in some editions of the Good Beer Guide, and even more so when I saw just Marstons Pedigree and Ringwood Fortyniner on the hand pumps, but the friendly barmaid pulled a cracking pint of Pedigree – rich, frothy and eminently drinkable – which assuaged any remaining doubts. There’s no doubt that this pub, which I’m surprised to find was until now unlisted on Pubs Galore, is an absolute oasis in the real ale desert that extends across this part of London. It’s a nice enough place – the two-bar set-up works well and I felt very welcome in here as a stranger, although the rough and ready nature of the clientele may be off-putting for some. Not quite a hidden gem, but surely the best pub for quite some distance around.