The Jubilee, Rochester

Now a Tesco Express.

Walking to the Jubilee down Darnley Road late on Saturday afternoon I saw first hand what is wrong with this country. I found it quite disconcerting as I was eyeballed by the local inhabitants that were spending their afternoon sitting on their doorsteps drinking Stella whilst their fighting dogs menacingly frolicked in the sun. The language of the children was what one would expect in an old soak filled Irish bar at 1am on a Friday night and every other twenty something seemed to have a black eye. To be honest as I approached the pub and saw a couple of blokes smoking in the doorway I wondered to myself what the hell I was doing here. I was actually surprised when I walked into the Jubilee as I was expecting a right crap hole and found myself in a reasonable, if not outstanding, boozer. This is an L shaped pub with a couple of projector screens for showing football and on the rear wall to the right of the bar there are a couple of dartboards. To the left of the bar there was some DJ equipment set up for the evening’s entertainment. An enclosed beer garden can be found through the left hand side exit and this houses eight picnic tables, a Barbeque, a slide and a paddling pool for the kids. The bar is stocked with standard draught products and the two hand pumps on the bar were both off. I had a half of Guinness which was perfectly acceptable and the woman that served me was polite enough. If this pub was in another location it would be a decent place for a beer or two, but unfortunately its location dictates that some of the locals aren’t the friendliest and I was glad to leave.