In the summer months, the Cross Keys' elaborate gilded exterior is vibrant with floral baskets. The current pub was built in the 1840s as part of a slum clearance programme in the area. This ever-popular Victorian alehouse is an excellent spot to grab a pint and a bite to eat, not least for its location in Covent Garden close to many fine theatres and boutiques. The conservatory-like restaurant at the back has served well-priced curries and Pad Thai since the 1980s order prawn crackers at the bar if regular crisps feel too ordinary for the surroundings.Īddress: 119 Kensington Church St, London W8 7LN The bar area is welcoming, with real ale from Fullers, and locals mixing with regulars from the nearby Daily Mail and Evening Standard offices. Inside is a festival of strangeness: more than 1,600 butterflies are mounted and displayed, while 100 chamber pots hang from the ceiling, jostling for attention alongside lanterns, hat boxes and tributes to American presidents. Come December, the pub is wrapped in tinsel and the floral display replaced with 100 Christmas trees and more then 20,000 festive LED lights.

Outside in spring, a stunning spectacle of floral hanging baskets would make Babylon look plain. The pub wins awards for the eccentricity of its displays. But former long-time landlord Gerry O'Brien made it work, making the Churchill Arms one of the prettiest and most convivial pubs in West London. It sounds like an elaborate music hall joke: an English pub, run by an Irishman, serving Thai food – with a Chelsea Flower Show-qualifying hanging garden display on the outside, and WW2, royal and hurling memorabilia occupying every inch of the inside walls.

Buzzing by Samuel Sattin