The Ship, Chelmsford

Greene King corner pub with a nautical theme. The carpeted interior is certainly quite cosy. It was already fairly busy on our Friday morning visit to the town. Some were clearly here for an early lunch. Greene King IPA & Abbot are regular beers here. But they do now tend to offer something from Bishop Nick. On this occasion, it was a ruby beer called Respect. A further guest beer was St Austell Tribute.

Another back street pub in this part of town, this one is run by Greene King and presents itself as a smart pub with a slight emphasis on food. The pub has a U-shaped layout and is carpeted throughout, with the corner entrance taking you into a plushly appointed room with the L-shaped servery directly opposite, following the shape of the room. There is plenty of traditional dark wood panelling and a lot of very comfortable, well upholstered banquettes along the left hand wall, which has been split into a series of partly screened booths of sorts, each topped with pillars which have rope wound around them. This is part of a wider nautical theme which includes a set of sailor's lockers in a separate area beyond the bar to the rear left, battered old suitcases in a luggage rack, port holes and other such items. A centrally positioned fireplace serves both of the left hand rooms and as you move past the bar you find a number of smartly presented tables and chairs under the front windows, with additional comfy seating at the far end in the right section of the pub. Various black and white photos line the walls, there were several TV screens showing live football and pop music played quite loudly throughout my Saturday afternoon visit, possibly from the juke box I spotted to the front of the pub. There is a good value menu offering dishes throughout the day and I enjoyed a very hearty ham, egg and chips, served to me by a friendly barmaid. For a Greene King pub, the ale range is pretty encouraging, with Greene King IPA, Abbot Ale and London Glory supplemented by Belhaven & Orkney Kittiwake, Bootleg Twisted Groove and Beartown Bearly Literate. I tried a pint of the Twisted Groove for £4.00 and thought it was a very well kept pint which slipped down nicely with my meal. This is a pretty decent back street pub, of the sort you could quite happily bring your friends and family too without anyone feeling out of place. I found the beer and welcome to be very good and enjoyed the slightly quirky nautical stylings. Greene King certainly have some good pubs nowadays, offering more than just the same old beers and this is definitely one of their better ones - well worth keeping in mind when exploring the surrounding area.

Official site of the Ship, contains beer list - www.theshipchelmsford.co.uk

Official site of the Ship, contains beer list - www.theshipchelmsford.co.uk