Acton, 1994
Or maybe '95

Me and a couple of my housemates decided to go for a quiet weekday evening pint to a pub we'd not tried. It had one of those bars where the lounge and saloon are on opposite sides so you can see through from one to the other, like a large serving hatch with beer pumps on the bottom edge. There were steps up to it, so we could only see the top 18 inches or so of curtains, pictures on the wall, and a TV mounted on a shelf up by the ceiling.

So we're sat sipping our beers in the lounge, the only people in there. The bar person had nipped out to collect glasses or something. Our conversation lulled and we noticed the whole place was eerily quiet, then suddenly, from the bar, there was a cacophany of shouting and a single chair sailed through the air from left to right. Followed by a dartboard from right to left. Then several glasses, some arcing beer out of them in a spray of malty yellow droplets, passed each other as unseen hands on both sides of the room threw whatever they could at one another.

Then a yell, and the dull meaty thud of fists, knees and elbows on flesh. More chairs arced past, sometimes repeatedly, as (presumably), someone hit someone else with one several times.

It was like watching only the top third of the screen while a Wild West bar-room brawl scene played. We sat, slack-jawed, and watched as the furniture flew

Then, blue lights and sirens, and the barman reappeared with a bloody nose, the first sign we'd had that real violence was taking placed, and not some arch piece of physical theatre. We handed him our empty glasses, bade him goodnight, and went back to our local.

tl;dr I saw the top half of a room in which a big bar-room brawl took place, couldn't see any people fighting but saw the things they threw around, and it was weirdly fascinating.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Thu 14 Mar 2013, 13:23, 2 replies)

I work in Acton
And every pub is this pub, except for The Rocket which is just about okay.

Just go to Ealing. Its a short walk and you won't get stabbed.
( DinivanX Has stinging piss after drinking Pact Coffee, Thu 14 Mar 2013, 15:07, closed)

Moved out of London in 1996
I don't think the pub is even there any more - looking at Google Streetview, and relying on shaky 20+ year-old memories, it was on Horn Lane just past Springfield Gardens going North, and is most likely a block of flats now.

I used to like the Duke of York, though that had a lot to do with the short stagger home to Derwentwater Road around the corner.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Fri 15 Mar 2013, 15:54, closed)