Review

Virtually a cigarette and tobacco theme-pub, with the walls and shelves lined with old cigarette cards, ancient cigarette tins and other ephemera related to smoking. Although, without a trace of irony, there are several cigarette-dispensing machines throughout the pub, all of which are empty and 'not in use'! There’s also an assortment of beermats, although only tenuously cigarette-related.

At the bottom end of Gloucester Road, enough of a distance from Kensington Gardens to ensure the Basketmakers Arms is off-the-beaten-track and free from hordes of day-trippers, this is a tiny, old, compact pub with typical wooden floors, low ceilings and snug tables and chairs. There is a small seated area outside for those with claustrophobic tendencies.

Renowned for its whiskeys, the bar at the Basketmakers Arms has a vast selection of drinks, and there was a mirror behind the bar but it is totally obscured with bottles, optics, and other things drinking-related. Above the bar hangs a collection of tankards, and being so diminutive, every inch of spare space in the pub is taken up with chalkboards, advertising the extensive selection of food on offer and live music – Cajun and acoustic (nice if you’re into folk and goatee beards)!

In the men’s toilets are the usual adverts that are of interest to men having a slash; although of considerable concern is the presence of an advert offering a crèche facility! Just the thing needed by pissed blokes.

In the ceiling are several doors, obviously giving access to whatever is above the bar, although by their size the only thing likely to use these openings is a rabbit. Unless, like Alice in Wonderland, there is a 'Drink Me' bottle nearby, which miniaturises people enough to get through the gap. The obvious answer, however, lies in the crèche advert, which gives a clue to the real usage of these holes; children are crammed through the opening whilst their parents get bevvied! (And for your information, every bottle in this pub says ‘Drink me’)

Review by mr_psm