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Chat about:
Disappointment of the week with Real Ale Ray
on the Pub Forum
Image posted by john mcgraw
Submitted on Thursday, 16th February 2012
With picture contributions to 21062 other pubs
View all this pub's pictures (16 more images)
Requested be closed with reason - Other: Reopened in September 2014, but is now closed again.
Detail Pages
The Town Hall, Staines Town, Staines Upon Thames
Staines Upon Thames
TW18 4RH
Served areas
Reviews of The Town Hall (Average Rating: 4½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Town Hall
Reported re-opening in the next few days.
February 2008
A vast two-tiered cavern that one might mistake for a Wetherspoons on first entering. The interior is visually arresting and the upstairs balcony makes for a nice seating area. Three ales are on (Tim Taylor's Landlord, Youngs Special and surprise surprise Courage Best) which let the place down as the quality was all over the place. Food is available. Many big-screen sports TV's dominate, all with their aspect ratios correctly set so it’s a good place to watch sportsmen rather than Smurfs. Though conversely a number of the staff on big match days are in absolutely no hurry to serve you, which is pretty irritating and drove us over to The Swan at half time yesterday. This has much potential but seems slackly managed. Ho-hum.
On 18th September 2014
- rating: 5
[User has posted 5072 recommendations about 5055 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Roger Button left this review about The Town Hall
The Town Hall was originally built in 1880 when the area was cleared to make the Market Square. The building will be familiar to some cinema fans as it doubled up as the Court House in the Richard Attenborough epic “Ghandi”. It is now a Smith & Jones pub and it has to be said they haven’t made the best of what is a fine local landmark.
The interior is predictably cavernous with a high semi-barrelled roof (containing some incongruous air conditioning pipes) a long bar down one side, a raised seating area opposite and balcony (was closed on my visit) wrapping itself around one side and end. The central floor space was largely open suggesting that a seething mass of Saturday night revelleres would be flowing in at some point however by the time I left at around 8.30pm there were barely 20 people inside – that’s around 1 door bouncer for every half dozen people. By contrast the 2 floor ‘Spoons opposite was rammed to the rafters. Sport is shown on the 2 screens behind the bar and in each corner of the seated side but there are 2 smaller and more intimate rooms to the front of the building where you can partially escape the TV’s, empty atmosphere or intrusive music.
There were 3 hand pumps with Bombardier, Hobgoblin and Batemans XXXB available – I had the latter which at £2.45 was more than reasonably priced but was sadly bordering on the undrinkable. If I’d thought it was worth it I would have probably returned it but I didn’t get the impression from comments elsewhere that they really take much notice when it comes to beer quality. A scan of the food menu revealed a typical PubCo selection with the usual “2 for” offers which I hope would be better quality than the beers (I didn’t attempt anything).
The place is worth a visit at the right time out of curiosity (and I’m sure the beer can’t be as bad every time) but on the whole it seems to be aimed at the mass market binge drinker community and those who won’t get up before the crack of noon the next day. Shame because the building deserves a more sympathetic approach and could be so much better. I dare say it but even ‘Spoons would probably have made a better job of it.
On 20th January 2011
- rating: 4
[User has posted 1239 recommendations about 1233 pubs]
No known official website for this pub.
- Facebook - The Town Hall
- CAMRA WhatPub :: The Town Hall - whatpub.com
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 20 January 2011 by Moby Duck
- Live TV Sports : Yes last updated 20 January 2011 by Moby Duck
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 20 January 2011 by Moby Duck
