CAMRA is organised into local branches which are, in turn, grouped into regions. Branches across the country have very different characteristics from the rural to the urban but perhaps one of the most unusual ones is here in London, the West London Branch.
I have been involved with the branch committee since around 2009. Our patch covers the three boroughs of Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Kensington & Chelsea. There are about 830 operating pubs and clubs in the area, a small majority of which, around 440, sell cask ale. I would hesitate to say to CAMRA members loyal to their own area that we have the ‘best’ pubs but around 180 of ours are listed buildings and we certainly have some very interesting pubs and some interesting characters running them.
It is hard to beat the ambience and history of pubs such as the French House in Soho, the Nags Head in Belgravia or the Ship & Shovell near the Embankment. CAMRA members nationally seem to recognise this, as anyone from out of town who gets off the train at Kings Cross or Euston, and has limited time in the capital, tends to make a beeline for the Harp in Covent Garden or one of our other well-known pubs such as the Dog & Duck in Soho. Matching the interest of our pubs is our roster of clubs, ranging from the splendid buildings of the Athenaeum, the Carlton and the Reform, through to the humbler surroundings of the West London Bowling Club!
The top ten most expensive housing streets in London are all in our area. At the time of writing a Belgrave Square townhouse is on the market at £135 million! This may account for us being smallest branch by numbers in Greater London, struggling currently to reach 500 members, with just 15 or 20 of those being active. It is hard to do anything useful with these tiny numbers. We do our bit annually for the Good Beer Guide (GBG) and run our annual Pub of the Year competition, although we now only award one certificate for the top prize because we can’t scrape together the numbers to run other competitions. Yet, within our area, Hammersmith & Fulham has the largest population of working 25 to 34-year-olds in the capital, a high proportion of whom are non-UK nationals. How can we attract them?
CAMRA members, of course, account for only a tiny proportion of the people drinking in our branch pubs. Many are tourists, flooding into central pubs such as the Admiralty at Trafalgar Square. Beer scores are an issue. Famous pubs like the Harp receive several hundred scores but others, including some really good pubs, never figure in the GBG because there are never enough CAMRA members to score them.
It’s not all doom and gloom. Our perception is that pub openings are outweighing closures over the last couple of years and some of these openings have been outstanding. For example, the Devonshire in Soho was arguably the most successful London pub launch this century and recently claimed the number one spot in the Top 50 Gastropubs awards. Three other branch pubs were also listed. Later this year we expect to see the opening of three new JD Wetherspoon outlets: one at Charing Cross station, another at Paddington station and the third very close to Piccadilly Circus. Most central licensed sites that fall vacant tend to be snapped up fairly quickly, particularly in already densely licensed areas such as Soho.
Our branch socials now tend to focus on afternoons and centrally located single pubs or small tours, which are quite successful in attracting members from other branches. We have very much reduced our committee meetings over the last few years and now concentrate on ‘core business’ such as the Good Beer Guide and our Pub of the Year competition. Sadly, like many branches, we are being overtaken by demographics and the grim reaper, with CAMRA membership aging faster than the general population.
If you live – or work – in the London boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea or Westminster and are interested in becoming involved with CAMRA activities, you will be welcome. Why not join us at one of our socials or come to a committee meeting. See our events in the diary section at the front or contact Wanda, our branch chair, at chair@westlondon.camra.org.uk.
Paul Charlton