The Five Bells, Rochester

At the crossroads in the centre of town, with a couple of patio tables at the front to watch the world go by. Standard, slightly down at heel interior. There was London Pride on - with a hard printed sign on the hand pull. It wasn't the worst London Pride I had - having been to Margate later in the week - but it wasn't in the best of condition.

I popped into the Five Bells just after midday on Tuesday last week to find the pub empty. In the left hand side of the pub is an L-shaped bar with seating and a pool table. A central bar serves seating that sits under the middle front windows and to the right is tile floored seating area. Some steps at the rear of this area lead to a beer garden with picnic tables. There are a few more picnic tables on the path outside the front of the pub and to the right is a small parking area, although the council car park over the road is also free and a lot more spacious. There is a function room advertisement, which will be the aforementioned L-shaped lounge bar if there isn’t another room upstairs. The bar supports a standard keg range and there is no food available. The landlady was friendly, but she was new and had only been in the pub a few days. There was some background music playing. This basic pub has the feel of a neglected high street boozer.

Looks impressive, sited on the crossroads in the centre of the old part of the village, but the repainted interior is disappointing. It does retain a multi-room layout, with the bar in the central part opposite the main entrance, a lounge bar off to the left and a pool room on the right-hand side. But with no sign of food, and no real (or even bottled) ale, the offer is currently very limited, so I made do with a John Smith's (£4.10) before moving on.