The Queen, Dartford

Initially looks like a very basic, side-street local, and as I approached the tatty frontage I was far from convinced that it would actually be open. However, once inside, I found both the left-hand lounge and the public bar (with pool table) to the right packed on a Sunday afternoon. Even more surprising, four of the five handpumps were in use, pouring Old Speckled Hen, Abbot, Kent Brewery's Prohibition (£4.20) and Beavertown Neck Oil on cask.

Until 1988, this semi-detached building housed the pub in the left hand property and a shop on the right, but now the shop has gone and the pub has expanded, although thankfully they have kept the partitioning wall up to create two distinct rooms. The left hand room is a carpeted L-shaped bar with banquettes and low stool seating under the front windows, textured wallpaper and a fake beam ceiling. The room is well stocked with pub staples including a pool table just past the end of the servery, a dedicated darts area, juke box and TV screens showing sport. The room on the right hand side has been set up as a lounge bar and has some nice, newer looking furniture with a few paintings covering the walls. The lounge was certainly the more popular area when I visited, but given the excellent weather, I decided to take my drink outside to the split level patio at the rear of the building. In 1969, a previous landlord found the entrance to a Roman flint mine in this garden, but this has now sadly been filled in. There were three beers available alongside the usual keg range – Dark Star Hophead (£3.00), Greene King Abbot Ale and Foundry Torpedo. The Hophead was in pleasingly good condition and the barmaid was very friendly and efficient. Various pump clips have been put on display next to the bar, suggesting that you’re quite likely to find an interesting guest ale. The pub may lack a bit of character – in many ways it reminds me of a typical estate pub – but it seemed like a friendly enough place with well kept beer and certainly merited the short detour I took to investigate.