The Black Dog Beer House.

The Black Dog Beer House

A one-barrel brewery sits in a shed at the bottom of the beer garden, and the beer it makes takes one of the fourteen keg lines inside (Black Dog Beer House).

Why go

The buying is the argument. Of fourteen keg lines the pub keeps five for house beers and gives nine to guests, which it says out loud on its own live tap page: With only 5 house lines, we have 9 guest lines showcasing & supporting the best independent breweries around! (Black Dog Beer House). CAMRA's Richmond and Hounslow surveyor went further in February 2026 and recorded four changing cask beers and zero regulars, so nothing on the handpumps is permanent either (CAMRA). On the day this entry was written the list ran Villages, Full Circle, Kent, Queer Brewing, Burnt Mill, Ideal Day and Blackjack alongside Fearless Nomad from the shed. The branch made it Pub of the Year in 2025 (London Drinker). It is a genuine free house, leased by Twisted Grain Ltd, and the kitchen cooks lamb kawarma, muhammara chickpeas and a Nepalese chicken curry rather than sending out reheated pies.

Order this / avoid

• Order: off the guest lines first, since that is where the pub spends its attention, and take a third or a half so you can cover three of them. Fearless Nomad when a batch is on, because a one-barrel kit means the beer is gone in days. From the kitchen, the lamb kawarma or the house-cured salt beef sandwich, which the board flags when it is available.
• Avoid: Tuesdays, when the pub is closed, and the assumption that you can walk in at the weekend. Roughly half the tables are held back for walk-ups Monday to Saturday and the rest are booked (Black Dog Beer House).

What locals & experts say

• CAMRA, Richmond & Hounslow branch, surveyed 2 February 2026: Since opening in October 2018 as a Free House under its new name, this easily missed back street pub has become a very popular meeting place for the local area. The pub provides fourteen craft keg beers plus four cask ales from independent brewers plus 3 ciders on handpump. The same survey line reads: This Pub serves 4 changing beers and 0 regular beers.3
• London Drinker, CAMRA's London magazine, 27 May 2025, listing the twelve branch winners going into the regional round: Richmond & Hounslow - Black Dog Beer House, 17 Albany Rd, Brentford TW8 0NF. The panels mark on eight criteria beginning with quality and condition of real ale/cider/perry.5
• CAMRA London Pubs Group, on what stood here before: After many years of infamy, including stabbings, other violence and illegal use a strip club, this now-welcoming and busy pub reopened in October 2018. It is a true resurrection.4
• No critic has reviewed it. Searches on 30 July 2026 across London and west London press turned up CAMRA records, listings sites and user-review aggregators. The evidence here is a branch judging panel, a surveyor's count and the pub's own published list, all dated.

Good to know

• Timing: Monday 12 to 22:30, closed Tuesday, Wednesday to Saturday 12 to 23:00, Sunday 12 to 21:30. The kitchen splits its hours midweek, running 12 to 2:45 and 5:30 to 9 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, straight through 12 to 9 on Friday and Saturday, and 12 to 6 on Sunday.
• Booking: about half the tables are bookable and half held for walk-ins, Monday to Saturday, with ten minutes of grace on a reservation.
• Children: under-18s until 8:30pm, no children's menu, and the pub asks that prams stay at home when it is cold, because the room is small.
• Dietary: a full gluten-free version of the everyday menu is available on request, and the can fridge has its own gluten-free section. Several mains are vegetarian, and CAMRA records that the Sunday roast includes a vegan dish. No cross-contamination statement is published, so celiac diners should ask at the bar.
• The building: rebuilt in 1901 for the Royal Brewery (Brentford) and possibly an early Thomas Henry Nowell Parr design, inside the St Paul's Brentford Conservation Area since 1989. It traded as the Albany Arms before 2018, which is still the name on the food-hygiene register.
• Takeaway: two-pint containers are filled from any keg line.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5, inspected 19 October 2023, London Borough of Hounslow.6

Verdict

should-visit — Worth the detour if beer is the reason you are moving. Nine of the fourteen keg lines are guests and the four cask handpumps carry no regular beer at all, which is a buying policy rather than a slogan, and CAMRA's Richmond & Hounslow branch judged it Pub of the Year 2025 on criteria led by the condition of the cask. A one-barrel kit in a shed at the bottom of the garden brews Fearless Nomad for one of those lines, so the conviction is visible in capital as well as in the list. The kitchen is doing more than a beer pub needs to: muhammara chickpeas, lamb kawarma over hummus, a Nepalese chicken curry and house-cured salt beef, all made in the building. It holds below the top rung because no critic has assessed a plate or a pint here, and because the room is a good backstreet pub rather than a reason in itself.