Review

The room at the front of this pub is very European in style, small and rectangular in shape with a bar in one corner, it would seem rather crowded and claustrophobic were it not for the large French windows that allow the front of the pub to be opened up when the English weather is favourable. In the summer, a couple of tables are placed on the pavement outside, which completes the European look and feel of the place.

A much larger room is to be found behind the front bar, it’s more traditional English pub in style, but suffers from an excess of polished wood; the floor the tables and chairs and even the bar are shiny. The walls are covered with pictures and paintings, mostly depicting traditional English countryside pursuits, including hunting and shooting; presumably the white hart on the pub sign was captured in his relaxed pose just before some bloke shot him and mounted his head on the wall of the pub. There’s a taxidermist somewhere who made a lot of money by providing The White Hart with a number of pieces of his work. Assuming, that is, that the stuffed animals on display aren’t of the home made variety, given their quality you could be forgiven for thinking this isn’t the work of a competent professional, but rather the work of someone who has decided to do a number on the family cat. These stuffed animals and traditional pictures would seem more at home in a dusty tat filled old pub, rather than the shiny wooden affair that is The White Hart.

There’s a small beer garden that is accessed through the back bar, but as it is surrounded by tall buildings it’s only good for direct sunlight for part of the day. The tables at the front of the pub suffer from this problem to a degree, but the compensation is that this is a great location for watching the totty go by on Fulham Broadway.

The White Hart is most popular on Friday and Saturday nights when a DJ plays and the pub is open until 1am. The board advertising the DJ and the late license makes a point of mentioning that entry is free all night, but then so it should be, DJ or not, late license or not, it’s still only a pub at the end of the day.

Review by AJS