The Builders Arms

Push deep into the back streets behind the old Barkers building & you’ll discover old Kensington’s picturesque jumble of streets, with the perennially popular duck-egg blue Builders at its hub, many of whose regulars hail from the area’s shops & the nearby Evening Standard offices. Take your pick from Cask Marque assured ales, blow-your-head-off lagers such as Paulaner, Hoegaarden & Fruli & 20 bright wines – all of which will appear eventually: the bar gets crowded & service, although basically efficient, can seem slow. Decor follows the fashion for the reclaimed & reinvented to pleasant effect, & there’s a funky graffiti-scarred crash-pad upstairs set into the rafters with low-slung seating.