The Woodman, Dartford

The Woodman is a short walk from the middle of Dartford up East Hill. Once inside there is a single oblong shaped room with the bar facing,the room is carpeted and has comfy bench seating and chairs,there is a pool table in a small separate area to the left. There were no real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Heineken which was decent enough. There was decent background music playing. A decent enough pub,just a shame there was not one real ale on. Pub visited 22/10/2016

The Woodman has been perched near the top of East Hill since the 1860’s when the town started to expand out of its sheltered valley location. It has undergone several structural alterations over the years resulting in a much expanded building from its original simple farmhouse structure. The the interior is a single knocked through main bar with a separate pool area to one side behind a wall remnant. The décor is mock Tudor and rather dated although there are a few patterned windows and some interesting old pictures of town adorning the walls. The beers have always been very mundane with a couple of standard ales (currently London Pride and Bombardier although the latter was off) and the usual suspects in the lagers/kegs selection. One reason why the pub has always been on the periphery of my local pub visits is because over the years the beer quality here has always been consistently poor and my latest visit was no different, the Pride being just about on the acceptable side of drinkable. One of the pubs potentially better assets is the large beer garden at the rear although, given its size, it would almost need a full time gardener to make the best of it but as t is, it a bit on the tatty side with some patchy turf containing a few benches and a childrens play area. The Woodman is very much a local’s pub with a take us as you find us approach and whilst not unwelcoming, there is little effort to make it stand out over the other pubs in the area to make a visit particularly worthwhile. Until such time it has a more adventurous and consistent choice of beers, this is one local pub that will have to make do with just the occasional sporadic visit.