Antelope SW1

London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Kensington, Chelsea and Earls Court

Antelope, London SW1

Traditional pub (Fuller’s)
22 Eaton Terrace SW1W 8EZ
T 020 7824 8512 w www.fullers.co.uk
Open 1200 (1100 Sun)-2300 (2330 Fri, 1700 Sun). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beer 5 (4 Fuller’s, 1 guest) Cask Marque, Other beer 4 bottles, 1 keg, Also 30+ wines.
Food Upmarket pub grub/gastro menu, Wifi Yes.
Occasional big screen sport, chess, cricket club, functions.

This determinedly old fashioned boozer a short hop from Sloane Square and the Royal Court Theatre must be one of the loveliest Fuller’s pubs in London. The smallish space around a square bar is simply and traditionally furnished and almost studious, with lots of wood, a real fire and a few armchairs and books towards the back. Upstairs there’s more space in the Eaton Room. The simplicity honours the pub’s origins in 1827 as a facility for servants and workers employed in the big houses of Belgravia, which was then being redeveloped by Thomas Cubitt. Today most customers are rather better off, and the pub boasts a cricket club, founded in 1991, rather than a darts team, but it’s an easy going place and you don’t have to arrive in a Chelsea tractor to be made welcome.

Exquisitely kept cask ales include Discovery, ESB, London Pride and – more unusually – Bengal Lancer, with a guest that might come from the likes of Castle Rock or Brain’s. Bottled beers should include 1845 and examples from the Past Masters series, while Honey Dew is on keg. Food befits the surroundings – game and wild mushroom pie, maple glazed gammon or maybe a vegetarian curry or pasta. The only off note is the recorded music which, though quiet, is superfluous in a place like this.

Insider tip. Try to grab a seat in the lovely small room to the left, a particularly homely environment.

Underground Sloane Square Cycling LCN+ 5, link to LCN+ 38 Walking Link to Jubilee Greenway