The Chancery, Beckenham

I think the focus of this pub has changed a bit since the previous reviewers' visits. The structure is much the same. You enter into a small room with just a couple of tall tables and tall stools, but with access to the bar counter; there is a small room for drinkers at the back on the right, but the main room at the front of the building is now essentially a restaurant with all tables laid for diners, and with reserved signs on all the tables apart from one at the back next to the door into the toilets. The bar counter in this room is not in use - that is, it's not in use for customers to buy drinks as it's covered by all manner of restaurant paraphernalia. But maybe the food's good as all the tables were reserved? I didn't eat here so can't say. But on the plus side they do sell real ale, with London Pride, Black Sheep Bitter and Adnam's Ghost Ship on. The Ghost Ship was undrinkable, but readily exchanged for the Black Sheep Bitter which was fine. I think that this place is now more restaurant than pub, but it does have a bar area for drinkers so now falls into the "OK" category I would say.

The Chancery is a fairly large looking pub that is situated on the busy Bromley Road,it is very close to the Jolly Woodman pub. Once inside the pub now has two separate rooms,there is a decent sized room to the front which is L shaped and has normal tables and chairs,this room was out of use to the public due to it being used for a baby shower,the room to the rear is a lot smaller and oblong shaped,there are two normal tables and chairs a leather settee and one tall tables and stools crammed into this small room,it was also very busy as the locals had been kicked out of the main room. There were three real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Black Sheep bitter which went down well,the other real ales were Adnams Ghost Ship and London Pride. A decent enough pub,just a shame i could no have had a drink in the larger main room. Pub visited 18/3/2017

This is a large Victorian street corner pub on the main Bromley Road, but unfortunately, years of alterations have left the place with an open U shaped layout and just the occasional hint of the multiple room pub that it was in the past. The main bar has a mix of stone, wood and carpeted flooring plus an abundance of dark wood panelled walls. Some small tables run underneath the front windows which have paperback books stacked in the sills and venetian blinds offering a bit of privacy from the outside world. To the left side is a lounge/dining space with sofas in front of a small fireplace and standard tables and chairs to the rear, where another similar fireplace can be found. A few interesting brass items have been arranged on the mantelpieces whilst the walls are decorated with old paintings and a few promotional posters for upcoming events at the pub. The right side of the bar is a simple affair, with additional seating running down to a separate lounge. The servery area is vast, seemingly due to part of it being knocked down in order to open it up to the whole front section of the pub. A TV was showing muted news coverage whilst a fairly decent selection of tunes played over the sound system. A door in the rear left corner leads out to a particularly attractive looking garden and a few benches can be found on the forecourt to the front of the building as well. This pub has appeared in recent editions of the Good Beer Guide, so I was hopeful of a good pint or two, although an A-board outside proclaiming ‘New Management’ made me fear the worse. In the end, things were somewhere between the two, with three ales available, albeit rather uninspiring options – St Austell Tribute, Courage Best and Wells Bombardier. I went for the Tribute, which was okay, but not as good as the one I polished off just minutes earlier in the nearby Jolly Woodman. I’d expected to find this place buzzing on a bright Saturday afternoon as it seemed very popular whenever I’ve passed it previously, but it was very quiet and I do wonder if the change of management has been a factor. I wasn’t overly impressed but it does have a few redeeming features that mean I might well give it another try in the future.