The White Horse, Russell Park, Bedford

This is a large roadside Charles Wells pub in one of Bedford’s eastern suburbs, with a smart gastro-style interior, laid out across several separate areas. The front entrance takes you directly into the main bar area - a bare boarded space with a strip of decorative tiling around the servery, which occupies the entire rear wall. The bar has a grey wood panelled counter front and a white tile bar back fronted by modern metal shelving units. Seating in this area is restricted to a few high tables and stools under the front windows, whilst the walls are decorated with some pretty dreadful wallpaper that has a print designed to look like mounted hunting trophies. To the left, there’s a large shelving unit full of jugs, bottles and a phrenology model among other things, and this acts as a partitioning screen from the left side room. This is a carpeted area, broken by a bare boarded walkway that leads to a door for the toilets and car park to the rear. Comfy chairs serve tables of varying sizes, whilst a couple of semi-circular banquettes occupy the left-hand wall either side of a modern tiled fireplace with a lit gas stove inside and a large plain mirror above. There’s a mix of wallpaper and retro wall panelling throughout, plus some shelves with various trophies, books and board games. The room to the right of the bar looks like quite a large space ideally suited to diners, including a space named ‘The Tack Room’, but there was some sort of private function going on in here when I visited, so I couldn’t snoop properly. Some dreadful old-school pop tunes played in the background and aside from the private party, I was the only other customer. There are four handpulls on the bar, but one of these was out of action and another was dispensing a real cider, leaving an ale choice of Wells DNA and Legacy. I ordered a half of the Legacy, which was served to me by a barmaid who was about as enthusiastic about serving me as I was about drinking her dull beer. It was in reasonable enough condition but aside from that, the only positive thing I can say about it is that it’s better than Bombardier. I had to make a long schlep through suburban hell to reach this Good Beer Guide listed pub, so it was a major disappointment to find a corporate-style, food-led pub with just two Wells beers to reward my efforts. If you’re a fan of Ember Inns or other such similar chains, there might be something here for you, and I’m sure it’d be a nice place to take the family for a meal, but for me it was a bit of a wasted journey and one I could happily scrub off any future crawls.

Official site of the White Horse - www.whitehorsebedford.co.uk

Official site of the White Horse - www.whitehorsebedford.co.uk