The Churchill Arms

Photos and First Impressions

Damn, that's a lot of flowers!

Well over the minimum 15 piece of flair.

The Bar (and the only bare surface in the place)

"If you're gonna spew, spew into this."

Chronicling from the Barstool

 

The Brits adore Winston Churchill. In fact, worship is probably more apt. On the one hand, I can see why. He was an inspirational orator, pugnacious politician, and exactly the right man to lead Britain through the Blitz. On the other hand, I don’t sense a similar reverence for FDR in the states, who was our equivalent at the time, and probably a more consequential figure.

 

As a quick, rant-like aside, FDR deserves more credit for directing the Allied war effort and forging the postwar world order—in many instances doing so only by circumventing Churchill. For all his greatness, Churchill was too micromanaging in battle plans, too reluctant to open a second front in France, and too eager to maintain the Empire in the war’s aftermath. Weirdly, the major knock the Brits have on Churchill is the Gallipoli campaign in WWI. While ultimately a disaster, that failure was more the fault of military commanders in the Dardanelles than with Churchill’s overarching plan.

 

But I digress.

 

I should probably have cut that odd and lengthy introduction to this: The Brits love Churchill so much they named a pub after him! Well, sort of. It was known as the Church-on-the-Hill pub in its early days, and apparently Winston’s grandparents were regulars back in the 1800s. Given the familiarity in name and the family connection, the name change following WWII seems almost inevitable.

 

The exterior of the Churchill Arms is among the most beautiful in London—and I mean for any building, not just a pub. The ornate greenery and award-winning flower display jumps out against the urban backdrop of Kensington, setting the tone for the welcoming feel inside.

 

Sensory overload smacks you in the face before you can even clear the threshold. Every inch of the place is covered with something—even the wall-to-wall carpeting, an odd and somewhat unsettling choice in my view. Much of the wall décor relates to some element of Churchill’s life or the war, but others are more generic to London/Britain, and some more specific to the neighborhood or patrons of the pub itself (Apparently, the staff fields a cricket team!).

 

Containers of various sorts line the ceiling: bowls, mugs, teapots, jugs, buckets, watering cans, lanterns…the list goes on. I did, however, notice that chamber pots (most porcelain) are the only items hanging on the south side of the pub. I can’t tell if that’s because ye olde pisser is located there, or because they put most of the American themed items on that side. Either way, a nice touch.

 

The area to the front and side of the bar I captured in the photos above is mostly used by patrons simply enjoying a pint. However, the Churchill Arms serves dine-in restaurant goers in the larger rear rooms. The food? Not your typical pub fare, but Thai cuisine. I’d say that’s weird, but when you’ve got piss pots hanging from the rafters, it somehow doesn’t seem strange in the slightest.

 

Also in the pub’s founding year of 1750…

• George II rules Britain.
• Treaty of Madrid between Spain and Portugal increases size of Brazil’s territory.
• José I ascends to the Portuguese throne.
• Louis XV displays 96 pieces of art in Paris’ Luxembourg Palace, creating the Louvre Museum.
• Dr. Thomas Walker’s party crosses Cumberland Gap, becoming the first White people to reach Kentucky.

On Draught

 

Skylab Session IPA

Dark Star Brewing Co.

4.2% ABV

 

I looked into this one a bit because it might be my favorite cask ale. Considering how much I liked it, I wasn’t shocked to see the brewer used three American style hops for this one, but the flat, English, cask style gave it a nice twist. The familiar bite of an IPA was there on the front end, but it finished really smooth.