The Brook Green Hotel, 170 Shepherd’s Bush Road, London W6

Built as a hotel in 1886, the premises were originally a Coach House which was owned by the Swail family until Young’s Brewery purchased it in 1944. It is said that the original Brook flows underneath the building.

A review in 1981 described the Brook Green Hotel as ‘a two-bar pub that was once a hotel’. Two years later in 1983, the adjacent house and shop were acquired as part of a major refurbishment.

The pub is on ground level and offers various lagers plus Young’s draught and bottled beers including ‘London Gold’. There is a hotel section upstairs which includes 17 en-suite rooms that have been described as being in a ’boutique design’. And downstairs the basement bar offers a wide range of cocktails. Red/white/blue cocktails were featured during the Olympics.

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There is also a link with a former local football club. In Frances Trinder’s superb book; ‘Loftus Road Legacy (The History of Shepherd’s Bush Football Club), she reveals that one of the Bushmen’s well known player, Stanley Briggs, became joint proprietor of the premises (with J.E. Woolerton) after arriving from the Richmond Hotel.

The players, officials and fans gathered at the hotel for the Autumn General Meeting on 25th August 1904 and it then became the club’s headquarters until around 1907.

Then, following the first ever match at Loftus Road later that year on 22nd October against Old Malvernians, the club celebrated what was described as ‘an evening of music and humerous songs’. Local entertainer Fred Searle concluded the merriment with renditions of ‘Mary Ann’s Refused Me’ and the ‘Diamond Ring’.

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The Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle reviewed the Brook Green hotel in August 2012 and they stated that ShortList magazine had placed it fifth in its top ten of UK gastropubs.

Sinead Doyle and Zach Leach are the management team there and Sinead was interviewed for the article. She said that Young’s Ale was their bestselling beverage and went on to say: “We sell quality food. We have to, so we can keep a cut above the rest.”

Things have really changed since we became managers. The entire building was refurbished and the food was revolutionised for a re-launch in February (2013).

On a recent visit there with Colin (ESSEXURs), Bernard (Kerrins), I found the staff friendly and the service good. I decided not to investigate the so called ‘secret garden’ at the back of the pub as I was quite content sitting near the open fire.

Steve Russell

(My sources of reference include the Hammersmith & Fulham archive and Frances Trinder’s highly recommended book on the history of Shepherd’s Bush FC – ‘Loftus Road Legacy’. The above pic was taken by Colin, aka ESSEXURs, and used with permission)

9 thoughts on “The Brook Green Hotel, 170 Shepherd’s Bush Road, London W6

  1. My mum and dad had their wedding reception here in 1960, after being married in The Lady of Fatima in White City.
    Oome on U RRRRR’S

  2. Just to add I can thoroughly recommend the sausage sandwich.

    Great feeling of history when you sit in the pub and…before someone says it, I did not take the first picture!!

  3. …as if I would make such a comment Colin.

    Yes the food is good and they do an excellent J2O as well! lol

    I bet the R’s players and officials and supporters did not get served up sausage sandwiches in 1904

  4. Exiled QPR West Londoner in Peterborough these days of 25 years.
    Apart from my 40 year love affair with the Rangers, this article typifies why Hammersmith will always be ‘home’.
    If my memory serves me correct, the number 11 bus used to start and terminate a few yards away from the Brook Green Hotel and I can vaguely recall from childhood hearing the siren of the Osram factory for start of morning shift next door.
    As an addition, Shepherds Bush Rd. used to be my parcel run during the early eighties for Royal Mail.
    Ah memories indeed!
    Please keep the articles coming as they are also appreciated by my Acton girl Newcastle United supporting (long story) wife.
    Love the site and best wishes to all connected to Indy R’s.
    You make West London and Rangers that bit closer for me.
    Many thanks.

  5. Ooops… my comment above in the last paragraph should have read… the Bushmen players etc etc

    Too many clubs keep changing their nicknames confusing me either that or an excess of J2O has scrambled my brain. Probably the latter!

    • Thank you for clearing up the picture taker Young Kerrins. Old Russell failed to make it clear!

      It is interesting that the established Shepherds Bush FC with a ‘settled’ home ground did not go on to be THE Shepherds Bush based club.Still..it did at least give us the chance to firmly base ourselves in West London. We must wean you off the J20!

      • Maybe Shepherds Bush Football Club would still be playing at Loftus Road today, but so many Isthmian League players had enlisted for the war effort in 1914-15 their fixtures had to be abandoned. The Loftus Road pitch lay silent for much of the war years until QPR arrived in the Autumn of 1917.

  6. Gerry I think you are right about that no 11 bus. In my childhood I can certainly recall boarding it a few times at Hammersmith Broadway.

    For your information the number 11 now terminates at Fulham Broadway.

  7. Aah, the Brook Green Hotel … or GBH as we used to call it. It was our favoured port of call after evening matches in the late ’70s, as we’d then go to the nearby Indian for a curry after closing time. Those were the days, eh?
    The main terminus for the 11 bus was actually Shepherds Bush (the bus garage) ut Brook Green was also a frequent turning point – I guess it meant they could keep better to schedule if the buses weren’t forced to crawl through the traffic down to Shepherds Bush Green and then the same crawl around the Green on their way back. I too was a regular user of the 11 bus in the ’60s, as many of my friends, plus my girlfriend lived near the route, which I’d usually catch too and from Hammersmith Broadway, which linked to the 260 & 266 routes – but the 11 ran late (unlike the 260/266) so I’d often catch the 11 to Shepherds Bush Green if I was late, hoping to catch the Central Line tube or – if I missed everything – to reduce my walk back to North Acton (sometimes via Loftus Road … because it was there!)

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