The Alexandra, Wimbledon, SW19

The Alexandra official site with menu and wine list - www.alexandrawimbledon.com

Just a short walk from Wimbledon station on the main road leading towards Wimbledon Village, the Alexandra is a large High Street Young's pub which has retained a pleasing multiple room format. The main bar is all about the dark wood in the shape of the floors, walls and furniture as well as a few bare brick sections of wall, all of which combines to create quite a nice, cosy feel to what is essentially the public bar. There is a lot of standard table and chair seating as well as the odd padded bench here and there. A fireplace houses an old wood burner, but aside from that, there's not a lot to distract the eye and perhaps with that in mind they have installed a number of plasma screen TV's which were showing Premiership football to a sizeable crowd. On the left hand side of the pub is the 'Green Bar', which is carpeted and has some comfy looking chairs and a proper fire which was lit on my early evening visit. A few of the local's moved into this area after the football finished and I got the impression that this was a popular spot with the regulars. You can access a third room from here, which seemed to offer some quite plush seating and is perhaps used more for formal dining. There were also signs for an upstairs area with a roof terrace. Beers available were Young's Ordinary and Special, Sambrooks Wandle and Junction, Wells Bombardier and St Austell Tribute. I found my pint of Junction to be in good shape, although I did balk somewhat at the idea of paying £3.75 for a pint of bitter brewed just up the road. Staff seemed nice enough and had a good rapport with the regulars. Wimbledon town centre doesn't have the greatest selection of pubs for a place of its size and I've always found the Alexandra to be one of the better options. That said, it's not exactly inspiring to find another Young's pub and there's not too much to get excited about, so all in all its a solid, if unspectacular, option.

The Alexandra is a large pub on a very busy road and it is close to Wimbledon train and tube stations. I went in a largish room at the front of the pub there were other rooms but i did'nt have a look at those. This pub is a Youngs tied house and there were three real ales on the bar i had a drink of Youngs bitter and this was a very nice drink the other beers were Youngs Special and Winter warmer. I thought this was a decent pub to start my pub crawl in. Pub visited 14/12/2002

Not a bad pub this; I wandered in and was pleased to find the Twenty20 cricket on, so over a pint of Tribute I was able to watch England get a complete pasting by the South Africans. It was a sunday lunchtime got fairly busy during my stay, which was good, and I felt sure the barman undercharged me the first time around only to find out again that my pint of ale was indeed £2.10 - unbeatable value given the location. The interior itself is fairly standard and non-descript; It has not been given a conspicuous makeover like many of this brewery's establishments. Worth one when passing.

Named after the Danish Queen Alexandra, consort of King Edward VII. This is a Young’s pub, so expect the usual ales on offer. Unlike one or two other Young’s houses I have visited recently, there were no guest ales. The Young’s Bitter was £3.10 a pint. It’s had a refurbishment since my last visit a year or two ago, the main change seemingly to open up the small ex non-smoking bar in the middle with the large room on the right. This room is bare boarded with plain wooden tables and chairs, possibly in an attempt to re-create the appearance of the public bar it undoubtedly once was. There is some exposed brickwork on the walls and a pillar, plus some wood panelling on the walls. The ridiculous sofas and coffees tables have gone from the old non-smoking area, to be replaced by ridiculous high tables and stools. The bar on the left is still carpeted, the banquette seating has all gone, but substituted with the equally comfortable upholstered chairs, and standard tables. This room is the equivalent of the old Saloon Bar; there were a few apparent regulars at the bar; and a real coal fire on the go. As you go through this room, at the back is a separate bare boarded room, with the walls painted a sort of duck egg green, and which was being used by diners during my visit. I believe that at one time this room was branded as some sort of wine bar annex. So, this is very much a pub of three halves, with three very different rooms. There is no wall decor worthy of mention. They used to have some interesting photographs on the walls, including, as I recall, one of four reigning monarchs and their consorts taken during a royal visit a hundred years or so ago. Gone now, it seems. The “public” bar area seems more gloomy now, with black blinds covering the upper portions of some of the windows. Also, the staff are now attired in the regulation black shirts. Like all pubs of this kind, there were TV monitors on the walls (but switched off during my afternoon visit), and the usual gambling and games machines. I think this pub has suffered from an admittedly restrained Young’s makeover, turning it from a good pub into an ordinary one. This is another pub that is OK for a pint if you are in Wimbledon, but definitely nothing special.

Routine Youngs/Wells house, fairly busy as town centre/ station pubs tend to be but nothing too special in fact rather ordinary if Youngs fans don't mind the pun. Large inside with various drinking areas. A quieter room to the rear allows you to avoid the tvs. Beer ok.