The Crowborough Cross (JD Wetherspoon), Crowborough

Visited 14/02/26 Reasonable cask offering of Pitchside Pale from Dorking Brewery, Adnams Broadside, Dark Conspiracy from Gadd's plus regulars of GK IPA, Doom Bar and Abbot. Typical JDW keg offering of Leffe Blonde, Shipyard pale ale, Stella, Angelo Poretti, Corona, Budweiser, Guinness, original and dark fruits SB, Coors, K1664, Bud Light, Weston’s Stowford Press cider, Carling, Carlsberg, Worthington Creamflow, plus the craft options of BD Punk IPA, Easy IPA from Seven Brothers and Sumo from Mad Squirrel. First visit for me to this JDW that we quite regularly pass on our way to Tunbridge Wells. It is accessed via a few steps up from the pavement on a busy road junction. The bar counter with a tile skirt is along the left-hand wall down the longer part of the venue to the right-hand side of the entrance with a boarded section opposite the bar counter housing a mix of regular and tall tables with windows looking out onto the beer garden at the side of the venue, which was hideously astroturfed, and housed regular picnic type benches. The rear beyond the end of the bar counter is carpeted with regular tables and chairs occupied by Saturday lunchtime diners on my visit. There are some fabric banquettes in the front bay windows with a large fire grate in the front right-hand corner with some tall tables just inside the door that provided a bit of peace in a venue with a lot of noise on my visit with plenty of families enjoying the cheap weekend breakfast / brunch offering. In the front left-hand corner, there are a couple of steps down to an additional bare boarded seating area with regular tables and chairs and a couple of steps up to a carpeted seating area also with regular tables and chairs. A carpeted corridor from the front left-hand corner beyond those stairs to the rear left-hand corner has a sequence of booth tables with a drinking ledge opposite. Not the worst JDW I have been to but not on my list for a revisit either.

The Crowborough Cross is L-shaped with seating across the front of the pub and a long stainless steel topped bar counter up the right that faces seating that runs up the left to some open plan seating at the rear that is faced by a large kitchen serving hatch. There was a strong curry smell during my recent early evening visit, I thought that JDW had stopped the Thursday Curry Club. The counter supports two duplicated banks of six hand pumps that were drawing the usual suspects plus Butcombe’s Chris Moose, Bradfield Farmers Belgian Blue and Cellar Head’s Flapjack. The service was OK, but I didn’t rate this Spoons.