Old Pack Horse, Chiswick

An exuberant architectural extravaganza of 1910 to designs by the prolific T H Nowell Parr for Fuller, Smith & Turner who still own it (it also doubles as a Thai restaurant). The Edwardian free-style exterior is enriched with lots of brown faïence on the ground floor and more interesting detail in the floors above. Three original rooms are still clearly discernible and retain their names in the etched window glass (some of it gently curved). Easily the best space is the saloon bar (on Acton Lane) with its panelling and delightful alcove and original fireplace, which sits behind a Tudor arch. Such arches are a Parr favourite (as elsewhere in this pub). The counter in the saloon is original too and has highly unusual detailing, while the surround of the bar-back is also of 1910 although the centre part is, unfortunately, modern work. There are traces of doors in the counter that enabled the servicing of handpumps in days gone by.

Round the corner the main bar-back, facing Chiswick High Road, is original as is the main run of the counter. The counter in the area on the corner of the pub is a crude cobbling together of old and new elements. On this side of the pub there is a division separating it into two but this was adapted at a refurbishment in 2017 which modified the opening between them with an utterly crass, industrial-feel treatment with deliberately visible steel joists. A visual disgrace. All the rooms in the pub have another Parr characteristic – exposed wooden studding and beams. Don’t miss the stained glass pack horses in the public and saloon bar upper windows and Fuller’s symbol, the griffin in stone relief above the corner door on two sides. One of the redundant doorways in the pub must have served as an off-sales.

On the right through a wide opening in a part glazed screen there is a snug area with a Victorian-style fireplace and good short partitions (modern?). Beyond a folding screen is a restaurant area added in a flat-roofed extension built in the early 2000s.