The Scarsdale Tavern, Kensington
Certain public houses are special to an individual for one of many possible reasons. It could be a deep personal connection due to a last drink with a loved one in that particular hostelry, frequency of use over decades or a joyous occasion of wetting a baby’s head.Whatever the reason there are pubs that have played a starring role as the setting in important moments of our lives. They can be the most special of venues and help to define you. This one is my such pub.
I’m often asked how I fell so deeply in love with pubs and why I dedicate so much time pounding the pavements seeking out new ones. There are a number of reasons but a big factor is the two people who ran this boozer for close to twenty years.
Their zest for running a first rate pub delivering quality cask and food opened my eyes and started a fire. A no nonsense power couple they were straight talking proper Guv’nors and a joy to be around. He ran the kitchen and she the front of house. They had dominant personalities and I was often in awe watching them operate.
Seeing him address bad behaviour in his pub was an education and they were people you did not cross. But they had a very soft pastoral side. They became something close to surrogate parents, as they did to all the young people who either worked or drank in their pubs, and I never got tired of sitting at the end of the bar hearing tales of pub culture and how the business worked. In my late teens and early 20s, whenever everything wasn’t right in my world I’d cross town to come here and sit at the bar and talk to her in the quiet hours between 3-6. When I left things always made sense again.
They taught me everything I know about pubs and were worldly colourful characters (of which there are so few left in the pub game now) and ran a helluva tight ship.
They’ve since retired but their influence on me was massive and the Genesis of a lifelong love affair. I often raise a silent toast to them as I’m on my sixth pub of the day and smirk thinking what have they created: ‘Mother, Father, look at your little monster!’
I was at the soft opening the night they took stewardship of the pub back in 1999. I can’t believe that was 22 years ago. As the seasons roll on by we realise we’re getting older but should remember and salute those who shaped us.
This is a very special pub regardless of my personal connection. Visually it explodes with elegance, lighting up the corner of the Grade II listed Georgian Square. The front garden is a delight in fine weather and an oasis of calm away from busy High Street Kensington.
Inside gives a glimmer into old London with candles in the windows dancing through beautiful etched glass. The right hand side of the pub is laid out for dining but drinkers are well catered for at either the bar or on the left hand side of the pub, It is always a treat to secure the table by the fire in the dark winter months.
However, it is in the summer that the pub comes alive as the double doors and window burst out onto the green of Edwards Square that giving a true appreciation of the vibrancy of London’s pub landscape. One to go and experience to sample of slice of high living, but traditional, London life,.
