London Pubs Group

Campaign for Real Ale

Campaign for Real Ale

Hope & Anchor

20 Macbeth Street,
Hammersmith,
W6 9JJ

This welcoming gay pub is one of CAMRA’s Real Heritage Pubs and the description is as follows: “This drinkers’ local is a very good example of a largely unaltered, modest Truman’s pub of about 1930. Planned as part of a housing development, it retains its separate public bar and saloon. The former is the larger but in terms of fittings there is little to differentiate them. Both have wall panelling and fixed seats and the counters are the same plain, panelled design while both bar-backs each have an Art Deco clock. Many pubs had spittoon troughs in front of bar counters, and that in the saloon bar here is an excellent example. Out of tune with today’s habits maybe but they were to collect human expectoration, cigarette ends and other sundry detritus. This trough has timber edging and is lined with brown and white chequered tiles. There’s even a small opening at the counter corner to sweep the bits and pieces together. Other original features are the brick fireplaces and, in the saloon, typical Truman’s lettering on the panelling advertising their wares. Original tiling in the saloon bar. The one big change is the loss of the off-sales compartment – traceable in the closed doorway on the (puzzlingly named) Riverside Gardens side and the stopped-off spittoon trough. There is a pleasant garden area beyond a loggia outside the saloon. History opposite: Across Macbeth Street is one of London’s Board Schools (1896) built in the late 19th century to educate children in architecturally uplifting surroundings.”

The pub is also statutorily listed and the listing description is as follows: “Public House. c.1936 for Truman's. Architect unknown. Brown brick in Flemish Bond with hipped tiled roof behind parapet. 3-storey corner pub in a Neo-Georgian style to complement the contemporary housing estate. EXTERIOR: 3 window bays to Macbeth Street, 1 bay canted corner and wider 2 window bay return to Riverside Gardens, this with central chimney with stone cornice and scrolled shoulders. At ground floor, a continuous stepped and rendered cornice above unpainted wooden windows with reeded detailing and moulded brick cills. Pair of doors to canted corner with PUBLIC BAR brass signage. First and second storeys have wood sashes joined by panel between storeys and under concrete plaque at parapet. Further single-storey range to Riverside Gardens has paired doors with SALOON BAR brass signage flanked by windows. Wall continues behind which covered loggia with Doric colonnade. INTERIOR: Much of the special interest lies in the remarkably intact interior. Interest here includes the survival of plan with the Public Bar to the front and the Saloon Bar to the rear. These rooms each contain their original bar counters, bar-back and panelling in polished hardwood and lettering advertising Truman's Ales. Also surviving are panelled half-height screens at the entrance, a Truman's mirror and clocks, two brick fireplaces with nautical theme brick plaques, fitted seating at perimeter and the spittoon trough in the saloon bar with chequerwork tiling. Between the two rooms is exterior access to the upper floors, which were not inspected, and where the off-sales window was originally, but this is lost. HISTORY: Completed 1936 to serve the surrounding Riverside Gardens Housing Estate that was developed in 1929 as part of a slum clearance programme. Listed as particularly fine and intact example of an inter-war pub in a Neo-Georgian style, designed as an integral part of the attached contemporary housing estate (not in itself regarded as of special interest). The main interest lies internally, where the plan form and fittings such as the bar counters, panelling, original Truman's advertising, tiled spittoon, seating and fireplaces survive.”

The Hope & Anchor featured on the Daytime Crawl of Hammersmith, Barnes and Putney in October 2003, the Evening Crawl of Hammersmith in July 2006, and the Choosy Cat and the True Sea Dog: Evening Crawl of Fulham and Hammersmith in August 2010.