The Tabard

The Tabard is a Victorian pub in the Bedford Park area of Chiswick, part of a listed Arts and Crafts building that includes ceramic tiles designed by William Morris and Walter Crane. It is one of the finest decorated Victorian pub interiors in London, and the building itself is an early example of the garden suburb movement that would later influence town planning across England.

The pub serves as a local neighbourhood bar and community venue, including a small theatre space upstairs. The ceramics alone are worth a visit — they are integrated into the bar and snug walls in a way that is distinctive and beautifully executed. Bedford Park itself, the residential estate surrounding the pub, is worth a short walk: the Norman Shaw-designed houses make it one of the more architecturally coherent Victorian suburbs in London.

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A story
The Tabard pub was designed in 1880 as part of the Bedford Park garden suburb development, one of the first planned residential estates in England. Jonathan T. Carr, who developed Bedford Park, commissioned Norman Shaw to design the houses and also had William Morris and Walter Crane design decorative tiles for the Tabard. The pub and its tiles are listed Grade II*.

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