The George, Windsor

Official site of The George - www.georgeinn-eton.co.uk

Official site of The George - www.georgeinn-eton.co.uk

The George is a Windsor and Eton Brewery house with 6 handpumps drawing ales brewed just over the river. 6 keg taps offer beer of similar provenance (although 2 are out of action today). An extensive collection of pump clips over the bar show what you could have had. It's a big old place, with several rooms and a busy beer garden as well, where most of the customers were to be found on a sunny afternoon. The kitchen takes a mid-afternoon break, though you can make do with a sizeable helping of various nuts. With the windows open to the quiet streets of Eton and a pint in front of me, I found this pub to be a relaxing place to while away an hour or two.

I was fairly sure I'd visited the George many years back. But having set foot inside again last night, I'm now not so sure! These days, it is owned by Windsor & Eton Brewery and was stocking the exact same cask ale range as its Brewery Tap over the river - Mandarin, Knight of the Garter, Conqueror, Windsor Knot, Guardsman & Father Thames. As at the brewery, Sandford Orchards cider is served, albeit carbonated. Having tried the Father Thames in the Taproom, I ordered the Windsor Knot here. It was a more enjoyable drink in much more traditional surroundings than the Taproom. Staff were friendly and welcoming and the pub is well suited for both groups and solo drinkers. CAMRA discounts are offered (20p/pint). I'm still not sure if I'd been here before. But I quite enjoyed the atmosphere in this pub and it was quite a nice place to sup my final drink before Christmas this year.

This pub has an excellent location by virtue of being one of the first buildings you see when you cross the river from Windsor into Eton, so it’s understandable why the local Windsor & Eton brewery decided to make this their first venture into pub management. Given the prominent street corner location, I was a little surprised to find that the interior is a fairly modest affair, with the entrance taking you into a compact main bar area. The servery occupies the rear right corner of the room and has a nice L-shaped, dark wood counter with matching bar back and canopy, broken at the corner by a large pillar which suggests there would once have been some form of partitioning, with the bar serving two or more rooms in the past. The room has exposed floorboards and plain painted walls, with minimal décor – the result of W&E’s refurbishment of the pub. There are some fairly long tables down the right-hand side of the room, served by rows of benches, with a more varied mix of seating options elsewhere. A door to the left, past the end of the bar, leads out to a sizable decked beer garden, where pretty much all of the customers could be found on a warm midweek evening. This large space has been well furnished with luxury garden chairs, wooden benches, some hard bench booths and drinking ledges served by bar stools, weirdly making it more comfortable than much of the pub’s interior. Plenty of these seats are under shelters and an abundance of hanging baskets and potted plants help brighten the space up and make it feel like a proper garden. There is also an outbuilding here, called The Hop House, which is available for private functions. A tidy row of hand pumps saw four W&E brews available, several of which were double clipped, suggesting a wider range might be expected once all the pandemic restrictions have been lifted. The options on this visit were Windsor Knot, Conqueror, Knight of the Garter and Eton Boatman. A friendly barman took my order as I passed the bar, and served up a pint of the latter, which a poor waitress then had to deliver to me, having no idea where I’d gone to sit! Thankfully, she found me in the sprawling beer garden, and I was able to enjoy a well-kept pint, albeit perhaps not one of the best beers from this particular brewery. I think my main enjoyment on this visit came from being able to take advantage of the pub’s fine garden, which is an unquestionable asset. It was also good to try some locally brewed beer, served to me by friendly, welcoming staff and despite some reservations about the plain interior, I left feeling favourably about this place and can well imagine taking friends or family here.