Unique Bars & Pubs London's Best Pubs West End Pubs Windsor CastleWindsor Castle – Marble Arch
The Windsor Castle is an unusual London pub, but courts controversy by filling the bar with enough memorabilia to keep your eyes wandering constantly. I've seen this in other pubs and it can quickly descend into tasteless tat - but not at the Windsor Cas
tle. It's held together by a vein of humour and a 'let's do it' attitude to running a pub. "I was just thinking... shall we put a sentry out the front - in a box?" "Let's do it!..." etc.
There was a temptation to wander around museum-like, peering into the glass cases - I'm sure no-one would have minded. Like many of the pubs on the Inside Guide to London site, the customers are personable. It's easy to become cynical or bored in big cities - but a friendly, and non-generic pub always earns instant respect. It has a small range of beers, but they're well kept and also offers good food - Thai, which does seem oddly generic in a pub like this.
The Windsor Castle has also been a long-term favourite of celebrity quaffers, including legendary 'liver-baiters' Oliver Reed and Richard Harris. I had cause to meet Richard Harris a number of times, when I was younger and I have to say - he was an actor who lived in character. As if a director were stage-left, bellowing "Project luv, Project!!!" He would frequently address food before consuming it - enjoying the attention his eccentricity never failed to raise. Whatacharacter! But he was fun and I'd loved to have experienced an evening with him here. His finger politely and constantly raised to attract the landlord's attention, "...another 2 pints and a brace of Whiskeys".
Dennis Waterman and Bobby Moore were also a pair of bar bookends. In fact Bobby Moore was the first football celebrity endorser, after the World Cup win in '66 - endorsing pubs too. I believe his [frankly squirmy] hook line was 'Look in at the local'. Which made you wonder who paid for it - a giant brewery which supplied every local pub in the UK. Who was the client? I'm getting off-topic, but that's exactly the kind of thing that happens at the Windsor Castle. You'll relax, have a few ideas, a few drinks and end up somewhere else. (Just make sure it's not amongst the bins, round the back). If you're at the west end of Oxford Street and need some R&R - make the effort to find The Windsor Castle. It's a trip that's likely to become habit forming.
{Spotted: a browser of this article has confirmed that during a period when The Windsor Castle was their local, Sitcom Royalty: Wendy Richard and John Inman were seen within. "I'm free... Miss Brahms." etc.}
27-29 Crawford Place, W1H 4LQ.
Edgware Road, Marylebone or Marble Arch Tube.
Call: 020 7723 4371
