This is one of several pubs on the crawl designed by the architect Thomas Henry Nowell Parr. Nowell Parr was born in Handsworth, West Midlands in 1864. He started his career as an architectural assistant in Walsall Corporation Architects' Department (1890 - 1894) and then moved to Middlesex to work in Brentford Urban District Council (UDC) Architects' Department from 1894 to 1897. From 1897 to 1907 he was Architect, Engineer and Surveyor to Brentford UDC and, while retaining this post, he set up his own architectural practice in 1900. Among his designs for Brentford UDC is Brentford Library, built in 1903 and opened on 9 May 1904 by the Scottish-born American millionaire philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie who had donated £5,000 to the cost of the building. In the same year (1904) a Boatmen's Institute was built for the London City Mission to Nowell Parr's design on the Grand Union Canal at Brentford - it is now a private house. He also undertook commissions from Fuller's and, as mentioned above, the Royal Brewery, Brentford with the Three Horseshoes, Southall and the Forester, West Ealing among his other pubs. Nowell Parr's son, John Nowell Parr (died 1975) joined the architectural practice at some point. In 1914 Thomas Henry Nowell Parr moved from 42 Cranley Gardens, South Kensington to 52 Kew Bridge Road, Brentford. In 1925 he became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He died on 23 September 1933.

This pub is not only a grade II listed building but it is also one of Britain's Real Heritage Pubs (ie it is on CAMRA's National Inventory of Pub Interiors of Outstanding Historic Interest) and the description is as follows: "A fine example of Edwardian suburban pub-building, erected in 1909 to designs by T. H. Nowell Parr for the Royal Brewery of Brentford. Parr provided a most distinctive piece of architecture, notable for its columned porticoes, green-glazed brickwork and prominent gables. Like Parr's Three Horseshoes, Southall, UB1, the Forester shows a shift away from late-Victorian glitz and glitter towards a more restrained style. In all there are four rooms. There were originally five plus the (disused) off-sales on Seaford Road, the reduction being caused by the amalgamation of the two rooms to form the public bar. There are two rooms facing Leighton Road and one of these has the remarkable distinction of possessing the only historic bell-pushes for waiter service known to the authors in London pubs. For the avoidance of doubt they even have the word 'BELL' above them! Apart from their rarity, they are curious in that there is a perfectly decent bar counter in this room where able-bodied drinkers might reasonably have been expected to order their drinks! There are some fine furnishings at the Forester. The servery still has its original counter and bar-backs which display a number of Tudor arches, a favourite motif of Parr's. There are a couple of Edwardian fireplaces complete with the green tilework and in the public bar there are long-defunct remnants of gas lighting. There are also some delightful floral Art Nouveau-style stained glass panels in the windows. In the heart of the servery is an office for the publican. There are doors in the counters for gaining access to service the beer engines in former times. The rear lounge is given over to well regarded Thai food. History across the road: The allotments on the eastern side of Northfield Avenue have been there since 1832. The allotments were established next to market gardens and orchards which proliferated in this area."

The pub has recently (late 2011) been refurbished to a very high standard and the previously closed public bar has been reopened. The listing description is as follows: "Public house. 1909 by Thomas Henry Nowell Parr for the Royal Brewery, Brentford. Rendered brick with granite plinth; gabled plain tile roof; corniced brick stacks. Domestic Revival style. 2 storeys, with 3-bay elevations to both Leighton Road and Seaford Road. Continuous ground-floor frontage, set on granite plinth and divided by piers with green tile facings, is linked by decorative iron railings surmounting dentilled cornice and plain fascia; original half-glazed doors set behind rounded open porch with Tuscan columns to corner, and two segmental-pedimented porches with Tuscan columns to Leighton Road; bracketed pediment over half-glazed door to public bar in centre of Seaford Road elevation; Tripartite wood-mullioned and transomed windows with 4-centred arches to lower lights and stained glass to upper lights. First floor has gauged red brick cambered arches over 3-light sashes flanked by shutters; two outer bays to Leighton Road have similar sashes to bow windows set beneath carved brackets supporting projecting gables with dentilled cornices continued round to Seaford Road elevation which has similar gable set over cornice and recessed first-floor bay. Left-hand return has conservatory to front of projecting bay with French window and flanking windows with glazing bars and stained glass upper lights. Interior: complete pub interior, with public bar to right of large saloon bar which opens onto restaurant to rear. Beamed ceilings; panelled dados; neo-Georgian fireplaces; mahogany bar counter and fittings with pilasters framing mirrors; Tudor-arched doors, with pedimented screens to saloon; saloon bar has panelled bar partitions; public bar has benches set against wall with turned balusters. The Forester is the most celebrated of Nowell Parr's pub designs, which formed a transition between the ornate pubs of the 1890s, divided into compartments, and the move restrained neo-Georgian and Tudor open-plan pubs of the inter-war period. (The Graphic, April 3 1909)"

The Forester featured on the Daytime Crawl of West Middlesex in February 2003, the Daytime Crawl of Middlesex in February 2007, the Style, Substance and E Numbers: Daytime Crawl of Greenford, West Ealing, Acton and Chiswick in February 2009, the Way Out West: Daytime Crawl of Ealing and Brentford in February 2012, and the Down the Uxbridge Road: Daytime Crawl of West Middlesex in June 2014.