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Disappointment of the week with Quinno
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Detail Pages
The Railway, Putney, SW15
SW15
SW15 6TD
Pub Type
J D WetherspoonReviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
Tris C left this review about The Railway
Dating from 1889, the current interior metamorphosis the result of a makeover from September 2023, so unchanged and well described by BF below.
Arriving at around 10.10pm last Friday, I entered a large place with modern pale boarded floor, slate grey paint or bare brick with white ceiling, modern mirror and steel bar back with white ceramic tiles. Furniture is conventional, décor in the form of eclectic prints; upstairs is a very swanky cocktail bar. Customers were young, trendy professional types, but the acoustics are appalling making conversation all but impossible.
A lacklustre cask choice arose from one unused pump then just Gun Extra Pale, £2.75 a half and somewhat warm and diacetyl.
This isn’t a great place but it’s like the Southampton meets the Audley compared to the Fox & Hounds next door; the Prince of Wales is still the place to beat along Upper Richmond Road.
On 16th February 2024
- rating: 3
[User has posted 1983 recommendations about 1949 pubs]
Bucking Fastard left this review about The Railway
Over the road from Putney station ,recently refurbed and reopened this is a large open plan pub with high tables all around the front section,with a long bench seat to the left side,a large sports flatscreen ahead and the wall to the right full of paintings and prints.The floor throughout is light pine,the wall coverings in dark Farrow & Ball,the bar to the right then some seating booths infront of a raised section which looked more like a dining area.
Upstairs there is an area decribed as The Lounge,empty on a Friday evening trip but looking like a cocktail bar with lots of small circular high tables and stools.
The lack of carpets creates a general din and the muzak was playing much too loud.It was popular with youngish office workers and a few old soak regulars but just one real ale ,Sambrooks Wandle (ever dull,NBSS 2.5) while the keg selection was mundane apart from a Siren and Deya tap.The short food menu with a median main at £16.50 and pizze around £13 didn't inspire confidence and few punters were eating.
Unremarkable and a not very comfortable place,I will drift pass quickly when I'm next in the area.
On 4th November 2023
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Railway (JD Wetherspoon)
Basic Spoons set up, with on my visit, a less than desirable ordinary beer line up percentage , having said that a couple of beers on my visit were at the other end of the spectrum and Binghams Extra Pale Ale was very good indeed. One other thing of note was the model steam train constantly running around a track suspended from the ceiling. Its Ok here but no better than that,having said that ,if walking past ,I would possibly nip in for a quick half.
On 16th January 2015
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1871 recommendations about 1844 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Aqualung . left this review about The Railway (JD Wetherspoon)
This was a Bass Charrington pub with a "notorious" reputation that was given the daft name "Drummonds" before Wetherspoon took it over in 1993.
It's a fairly typical old school Spoons that could just as easily have been a Bank conversion rather than an original pub.
The twelve pumps were all in use with no silly duplicates or annoying "Available Soon". The selection was GK Ruddles and Abbot, three ciders, Tetley Gold, Doombore, By The Horns Diamond Geezer, Portobello American Pale Ale, WJ King Poacher's Moon, Sambrook's Junction and Thwaite's Lancaster Bomber. I went for the Portobello which was in very good nick.
My visit was slightly marred by the short pint I was offered and the fact that after asking for a top up was returned with hardly any change to it.
Putting that aside, I thought this was one of the better Spoons and I would happily return.
On 15th November 2013
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2143 recommendations about 2143 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john mcgraw left this review about The Railway (JD Wetherspoon)
Large Wetherspoon's over two floors.had a good selection of real ales at very reasonable prices
On 12th October 2012
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2044 recommendations about 2025 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Mark Davey left this review about The Railway (JD Wetherspoon)
Might be a Spoons with all of the usual Spoons issues, but on 30th October at 1pm, they had beer and the Bricklayers at the other end of town had run out!
A couple of nice pints went down before Sunday lunch at the POW. (Originally reviewed on BITE).
On 5th January 2012
- rating: 6
[User has posted 292 recommendations about 276 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about The Railway (JD Wetherspoon)
Recently refurbished and certainly better for it, the Railway is a JDW on two levels, the upper floor accessed via a wide open stair in the middle of the pub or via a conventional staircase in the rear corner. The rear staircase has a storey height stained glass window depicting trains in a station.
The ground floor is a typical 'spoons layout with the bar along a side wall, a slightly raised area to the rear with a few booths. Some local history stuff on the walls including potted biographies of a few local dignitaries from times past. There is a mix of seating including sofas. The front windows fold back to allow in air and light but also traffic noise.
The upper floor feels rather sedate, there are large bookcases, framed engineering drawings of locomotives, pictures of steam trains and so on. The layout as the area wraps around the middle stair is such that there are quiet corners, unusual for a JDW. There is another bar up here but you won't get the guest ales, you need to go downstairs for these.
Five guests on plus the usual Ruddles, Pride etc and a couple of ciders. I had a pint of Hogs Back England's Glory which I haven't seen before, it was in good condition (£2.45).
So seemingly on the up, certainly based on my late afternoon midweek visit anyway, I'd stop by again.
On 2nd September 2011
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1707 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
train man left this review about The Railway (JD Wetherspoon)
Currently closed for what looks like a significant rip-out/refurb.
On 19th April 2011
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 412 recommendations about 411 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Railway (JD Wetherspoon)
This pub is housed in an impressive and magnificent Victorian edifice. Inside it’s an enormous barn of a bog standard Wetherspoon’s, with nothing exceptional about it except that it seemed to have more one-armed bandits than you usually see in a Wetherspoons. Guest ales are a bit more expensive (£2.20 a pint) than the ‘spoons I usually frequent slightly further out from the centre of town, where they are £1.99 a pint, but compared to “normal” pub prices they still represent excellent value. The first pint I ordered (Westerham’s Target) was rank and undrinkable, but this was readily changed for Dorking Brewery No 1, which was not good, but just about drinkable.
It’s a ‘spoons – some love them, some hate them. Personally I can take them or leave them, and I think I’ll leave this one.
On 1st August 2010
- rating: 4
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
hondo . left this review about The Railway (JD Wetherspoon)
large 2 floor spoons
On 30th July 2010
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2883 recommendations about 2820 pubs]