Tabard, Chiswick

The Tabard dates back to 1880 and was a pioneering 'improved' pub built as part of the Bedford Park estate, the first London garden suburb. The pub was designed by architect Richard Norman Shaw and is Grade II*-listed. The exterior swing sign (with a different image on each side) is a replica of the original which was painted by Thomas Matthews Rooke, who was at one time a studio assistant in Chiswick to Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Inside, particularly on the right, there is colourful Arts and Crafts tiling that covers the upper parts of the wall, which features snakes and blue birds by William De Morgan.

In the left-hand bar on the overmantel look for the pair of two-tile panels depicting nursery rhyme scenes, hand-painted in blue enamel on plain Dutch tin-glazed tiles which have descriptions 'Where are you going my pretty maid’ and 'The maid was in the garden’. Also, above another fireplace is another two-part tiled painting, damaged, with the description 'Little Bo-Peep fell fast asleep’. These were most probably designed by Walter Crane and decorated in the Morris & Co. workshops".

This pub retains two separate bars, although it also possible to move between them by two corridors, one behind the servery, and the other immediately in front of the bar counter. The bar back is from a 1971 refurbishment, but the counter looks original with a replacement top – note the ‘cupboards’ in the counter frontage to allow access to the beer engines.

The panelling is mostly modern. The pub has been extended to the left into a neighbouring house to create more drinking spaces. On the first floor is the Tabard Theatre (0208 995 6035), an intimate 79-seat fringe theatre which has been host to the likes of Al Murray, Harry Hill and Russell Brand.