Review

There is no large ball of burning gas or a piece of elastic holding up a sock, neither is there a famous, successful, important person nor a women displaying her suspenders! What there is, however, are yellow pastel walls, a pine floor, and a large bar counter that is one-quarter mosaic and three-quarters hammered steel. Once The Star & Garter, a classic Victorian pub, this imposing, grandiose building overlooking the River Thames at Putney is now home to Bar M, with its trio of ’venues’ to cater for all the extraneous facilities that a pub and bar is inclined to offer these days. In addition to Bar M itself, there is the Cellar Bar and the River Room, the latter being an ornate ballroom that has its own stage and conference facilities.

The popularity of Bar M, or The Star & Garter, as it continues to be known, is based entirely upon its Thames-side aspect that allows uninterrupted views of Putney Embankment and the river, an ideal venue to which the crowds flock each March for the Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race between Putney Bridge and Chiswick Bridge. A mezzanine beneath the windows stretches the entire length of the bar and contains many sofas, one to each side of every picture window.

Bar M is a wine and cocktail bar, evident by the proliferation of bottles behind the counter, with modern art lining the walls, canvases that seem as though the artist has used it to wipe the paint from his or her hands and brushes. It is certainly not Jackson Pollock’s abstract expressionism, more like Bart Simpson’s. Tall tables are in abundance, each surrounded by tall stool/chair hybrids that Bar M’s customers are likely to fall off backwards after too much Bucks Fizz and Pimms. From the many speakers throughout the bar emanates the type of innocuous easy-listening that fans of bars like this will have in their CD collection, The Boy With The Arab Strap by Scotland’s Belle And Sebastian for example.

The small, dark Cellar Bar has a brick bar, leather sofas, poufs, and red walls with large, sporadic white patches. The big screen TV ensures the area’s Australasian and South African residents are welcome to watch a variety of sporting events, and a DJ spins the tunes after the match. The windows in the Cellar Bar are at street-level, providing an excellent vantage point from which to gaze at the feet of passers-by and to be in awe of women in short skirts! The toilets in Bar M are still referred to as ’WCs’, an antiquated term that’s far removed the local vernacular; dunny would be more apt.

Review by mr_psm