Keeley Hawes, actress
‘I often walk to Richmond from my house in Twickenham to go to the shops and The ***** **** is the perfect place to stop between the two. It’s a beautiful walk and I like the exercise. I’m a white wine sort of a girl when it comes to drinking. I also like a Pimms in the summer, and sometimes a shandy, but that’s not very cool, is it! The staff are very friendly and helpful there.
The ***** **** is nice for people who have babies — when you sit outside on the veranda by the Thames, it’s not like being in a pub. My son Myles will be four in August and we often come here with my boyfriend Matthew. I’ve been coming here for about a year and a half, since we moved to Twickenham. As soon as people found out we’d moved here, they all kept saying, “You have to go to The ***** ****!” It’s quite famous because of its proximity to the rugby ground, and it’s decorated with lots of memorabilia and photos.
If you sit by the river, you can see *** *** Island. It’s a private island where the Who did a lot of gigs in the Seventies, and you can see these amazing little Seventies houses.
In the winter the landscape changes completely, it becomes very leafy. The pub gets very cosy then, with open log fires to keep out the cold.
I’m not sure what it is about summer and drinking outside, but this is the perfect place. It’s nice to stay outside because we have such terrible winters in this country. If it started raining I think everyone would carry on sitting out there, it’s a very British thing.’
By Chloe Diski and Natasha Polyviou for The Observer.
(Source: The Free Library and Keeley Hawes Blog for the tip)