A Fuller’s pub on leafy Brook Green built in 1796 as two brothers’ villas, once home to the Marquess of Queensberry and a haunt of Dick Turpin legend
The Queen’s Head holds eighteen hundred and seventy-five reviews and a 4.3 – a strong score on a very large sample – and it is one of the most historic and characterful pubs in Hammersmith: a Fuller’s house on the leafy Brook Green, built in 1796 as a pair of gentlemen’s villas, with a genuinely storied past and a warm, cosy, rustic charm.
The 1796 villas
The Queen’s Head has a lovely and unusual history. The building dates to 1796, when it was constructed not as a pub at all, but as two houses (numbers 13 and 14 Brook Green) – built for two brothers as their out-of-town villas, when Brook Green was a genteel semi-rural spot on the edge of London. It was only in the early 1900s that the houses were combined and became the Queen’s Head pub. There is genuine history and character to this – the elegant late-Georgian villas, built for two brothers, later become a much-loved pub, on the lovely leafy Brook Green. It gives the Queen’s Head a distinctive, characterful, historic feel – the handsome old building with its genteel origins, set on one of the prettiest green spaces in Hammersmith.
Queensberry and Dick Turpin
The Queen’s Head carries some genuinely colourful historical associations. A later resident of the building (number 14) was the Marquess of Queensberry – the title famously associated with the Queensberry Rules of boxing, and with the notorious feud with Oscar Wilde. And by local legend, the pub (or its site) was a haunt of the notorious eighteenth-century highwayman Dick Turpin – the most famous of all English highwaymen, the romanticised rogue of the old roads, who is said to have been a regular visitor. The Prat’s history desk takes the Turpin legend as exactly that – a colourful piece of local lore rather than documented fact – but it adds genuine romance and character to the pub’s story. Between the Marquess of Queensberry and the ghost of Dick Turpin, the Queen’s Head has a genuinely colourful cast of historical associations.
The cosy Brook Green local
Today the Queen’s Head is a genuinely warm, cosy, characterful pub – a Fuller’s house, cherished as one of the cosiest and most welcoming locals in Hammersmith. It has a lovely rustic charm – a cosy log fire for the colder months, a warm and characterful interior, and a lovely garden for the warmer ones. Its position on Brook Green – that peaceful, leafy green space, a genuine oasis tucked behind the Hammersmith bustle – gives it a lovely setting, and it is a beloved spot for a warm and cosy pint, a good Sunday roast, and a genuine neighbourhood welcome. Families and locals cherish it, and it is regularly named among the area’s cosiest and most welcoming pubs. Its strong score across a very large sample reflects this genuine appeal – the historic building, the colourful past, the cosy log fire, the lovely Brook Green setting, the warm Fuller’s welcome. It is a genuine Hammersmith favourite.
Between its 1796 villa origins, its Marquess of Queensberry and Dick Turpin associations, its cosy log-fire charm, and its lovely leafy Brook Green setting, the Queen’s Head is one of the most historic and cosy pubs in Hammersmith. Its strong score across a very large sample marks it as a genuinely good and much-loved pub. The Prat’s desk settles by the log fire with a pint of Fuller’s, imagines Dick Turpin at the bar, and raises a warm glass to the Queen’s Head.
The pub
A strong, hugely popular pub doing a good 4.3 across a very large sample – the Queen’s Head, a Fuller’s pub on Brook Green built in 1796 as two villas, with Queensberry and Dick Turpin associations.
Verdict
Strong, hugely popular, and genuinely historic – the Queen’s Head, a cosy Fuller’s pub in 1796 villas on leafy Brook Green.
Have a cosy pint by the log fire at the Queen’s Head on Brook Green, and enjoy the history – an 1796 pair of villas, once home to the Marquess of Queensberry and, by legend, a haunt of Dick Turpin.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
