The Country House, Earlsfield, SW18

This pub still retains its 3-bar format. The Private Bar is not connected to the other two. But the Meal Room (a new one on me) is connected to the Public Bar by an archway, with the former being used as a pool room, with one table and a few chairs. There’s a dartboard as well as a pinball machine (Spiderman) in the Public Bar. Ales on were Young’s Bitter and London Pride; I had the London Pride (at £2.90 a pint) which was not particularly good, although drinkable. This struck me as very much a locals’ drinking pub. Not the sort of place you go to for a taste of comfort. I didn’t venture into the Private Bar, but the Public Bar only had a couple of tables and a few stools. This is very much a basic backstreet boozer (although it’s very visible from the trains on the Waterloo line). The clientele were a bit basic as well – workers from a local builders by the look of them – but this is an observation, not a criticism! Worth dropping in to see the sort of boozer that was commonplace 30 to 40 years ago, but I don’t feel any great compulsion to return.