The Volunteer, Bexleyheath

Pub SignMan left this review about The Volunteer

This is a tidy, street corner, local's boozer with a well-kept, former multiple room interior, although now configured to give a clean run through from front to back. You enter through an unusual, full height frosted glass door, with all other doors throughout the pub designed this way too, including one with a "Volunteer Enlist Today" image. The front bar is quite a nice space with banquette and chair seating, half height wood panelling and a large TV screen showing live football - a feature that recurs in each space through the pub. The bar is to the right and has a nice dark wood counter with sweeping curved ends and a modest bar back. Moving through to the rear bar area, high tables and chairs plus a few low stools provide alternative seating options, whilst beyond this is a rear right space with more high chairs and a nice banquette. There's also a dartboard back here, but you'd need to shift some furniture to have a game. Out the back, there's a pleasant garden with a decked area, small lawn and plenty of seating.
Just two of thee four handpulls were operational when I arrived, with Sharps Doom Bar (£4.30 a pint) and Morland Old Speckled Hen alongside two unclipped pumps. A very cheery barmaid served up a decent pint of Doom Bar and then proceeded to startle the entire pub by screaming loudly from the kitchen, which a robin had apparently found its way into!
This felt like a decent local's back street pub and I was very happy sat here with a pint listening to the story of the robin's ejection from the kitchen. The beer range perhaps doesn't lend itself to much of a session, but I liked the friendly service and lack of pretensions in this place and would happily return.

Date of visit - 25th November 2023

On 11^th January 2024 - rating: 6
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