Draft House Opens Next Week in Shepherd's Bush Road

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New pub on site of Laurie Arms will celebrate Hammersmith Palais

A new pub, the Draft House, will open to the public on Shepherd's Bush Road next week.

The pub, the seventh of publican Charlie McVeigh's chain of Draft Houses, is on the site which was formerly home to The Laurie Arms pub at 238 Shepherd's Bush Road.

The pub served as a backdrop to The Hammersmith Palais
de Danse which opened as a ballroom in 1919, and later played host to countless artists, among them: The Beatles,
The Rolling Stones, The Who, David Bowie and The Sex Pistols.

The pub will formerly reopen on February 26, but is inviting local people to try it out during special Neighbours Nights from February 23 - 25 when food and drink will be half price.

Draft House promises a colossal range of craft beer on draft and in bottle, celebrating local breweries and buying in from friends in the USA, Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic.

" The interior and playlist will be a celebration of the Hammersmith Palais - demolished in 2013," says owner Charlie. " Many of us have happy, sweaty, pogo-ing memories of the Palais and a little bit of me died when I heard it was being torn down. Original gig posters and photos from the interior will serve as a permanent memorial to the place."

Draft House will restore the pub's interior, complete with original ten foot stained-glass windows on the frontage and it will be lit by antique French ceramic pendants, as well as clusters of glass orbs with golden flex.

There are original brick walls and Victorian pitch pine cladding, which will be painted with song lyrics from the Palais, and hung with artworks from Charlie’s collection. The oak bar will
be overhung by racked glassware and metal trough lights.

Outdoors there will be a courtyard and cobbled garden, complete with wooden clad drinking den, fitted out with booths and a stove. The den will be overhung with a striped canopy, and
there will be a living wall of ferns, palms and moss.

The menu will consist of hand-crafted pies including Steak & Kidney, Chicken Leek & Ham and Spinach, Sweet Potato & Goat's Cheese. Find out more here and book for Neighbours Nights here.

February 15, 2015