This wonderful painting by C.W. Moore of the Bull's Head in 1910 shows an idyllic setting for a pub on the river. It is still loved today by locals who spill out on to the tow path when the weather is warm.

This earlier painting by E.A. Norbury from 1880 shows the view upstream. The artist chose to leave out the railway bridge constructed in 1869.

This photograph taken thirty years later shows that a quiet pint would nowadays almost certainly be interrupted by the rattle of a train crossing the river.

Wandering through a maze of little rooms with their creaking floorboards and low beams, it is easy to imagine life 350 years ago. Tradition has it that Oliver Cromwell often used this pub as a command centre, and that he was forced to escape to an islet in the river by an underground passage. Historians are sceptical, but the island refuge opposite was renamed Oliver's Island and during modernisation of the cellars, traces of what could be steps leading to an underground passage were found.

The Bulls Head
Thames Road, Strand On The Green, Chiswick, London W4 3PQ
tel: 02089 941204