No pressure...
I had previously stayed at the Dukes Head on business and found it to be cosy and welcoming. My wife and I arrived at around 8pm in the evening, and despite the awkward ' cowboy film style all eyes on you' feeling as you walk through the door with suitcases into a packed pub, it was great! We were given our key and headed to the room at the top, room 23 or 24 I think, can't remember. Laid back, friendly, and as soon as we worked out the window and put the heating on, the room warmed up.
No pressure....really..no pressure. I'm talking about the shower. It's a British thing, probably not a fault of the Dukes Head.. .but the shower was appalling. On full belt it was akin to standing under a colander. Most showers in the UK are rubbish..I don't know what it is with the plumbing on that island but it was not a great way to start the day. As soon as you see that plastic box on the wall and the limp shower head you know what you're in for.
The TV remote was also dead and the window didn't close properly. It was a noisy and chilly night, the heating took a while to kick in and the windows were pretty drafty.
The last breakfast I had there whilst on business seemed fuller and nicely presented, but this breakfast was poor, watery eggs, two limp sausages and burnt toast. I took my wife here for a city break from our home in Austria and I talked the Dukes Head up, particularly the breakfast. The lady who served it was friendly but I'd been gagging for a British fry-up for months and what we got was weak, a shame as I'd been talking about ' The Dukes Head breakfast' for weeks. I think my wife must have thought I'd gone mad!
Saying this though, it's a cosy place to stay, no frills ( or hairdryer), I think some kind of a welcome leaflet would be nice in each room because it does kind of feel like ' here's your key, I've got pints to pull...bye then..'. With a bit more focus on detail it could go from being a good B&B to a great b&b
PS, close the windows, the pub sits right under the Heathrow flightpath. An airline flies over every 40 seconds! I know it sounds like a rant, it's not meant to come across like that. I'd been bigging the place up and felt a bit disappointed with the breakfast and shower. I remember the breakfast room having a more cosy feeling, it felt very cold and the food kind of dumped down in front of you. An Irish-run pub needs a big belter of a fry-up!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC