Churchill Arms, Kensington

Dating from 1824, it spent its first 18 months as the Bedford Arms. The winner of awards ranging from Boozers in Bloom to the Griffin Award for Fuller's Pub of the Year, this is also one of London's Real Heritage Pubs. The ceilings are packed with suspended bric-a-brac: you name it and it’s probably up there somewhere. There is also a framed collection of 1500 butterflies and many prints and photographs of the great wartime leader (after whom this pub is NOT named). Note the commemorative plaques to customers who are now spirits and the waterfall in the conservatory complete with fish. There is even a signpost in the middle in case you get lost!

The Thai food is recommended and this deservedly popular pub, with its range of Fuller's ales, can get extremely busy. At Christmas the pub sports a spectacular annual display which in the latest year was 100 Christmas trees covered in twenty-two thousand five hundred lights, and taking almost three weeks to set up. A fitting tribute to the legendary Gerry O'Brien, the licensee who retired in July 2017 and whose thirtieth anniversary at the pub in July 2015 was celebrated with a street party complete with a magnificent Fuller's dray-horse team (see photos). Current manager James Keogh celebrated 35 years of working for Fuller's in 2022.

Branch Pub of the Year third-place runner-up in 2018.