The Sussex Arms, Twickenham

Last night was my first visit to the Sussex Arms since pubs have been allowed to open this year. There are still a couple of tables at the front where you can drink, whilst most people walk through the L-shaped pub itself to the outdoor area at the rear. The patio and garden are quite large here. Whilst we couldn't get a booking last week, there was plenty of space on a Monday night for walk-ins. The patio area is undercover and next to the kitchen. It is undercover with tables nearest the pub benefitting from heaters. Beyond is a garden area with plenty of tables, albeit much more exposed. The ale and cider range was slightly more limited than in normal times, but it was still decent. Regular beers are Big Smoke Solaris & Underworld, alongside Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter. Guests yesterday were Portobello Stiff Lip IPA, Ascot Gold Cup, Northern Monk Eternal, Kent Prohibition, Five Points XPA, Burning Sky Plateau & Oakham Citra. The 4 ciders were Lilley's Strawberry Cider, Seacider White Peach, Farmer Jim's Medium Farmhouse Scrumpy & Pulp Rhubarb Cider. Use of the Big Smoke app is encouraged, although it was playing up a little yesterday and staff were happy to take orders at the table. Unfortunately, there still doesn't seem to be a way to use the loyalty cards that the chain used to have, where every 10th pint was free. Still one of the most reliable pubs in London.

Splendid beer exhibition pub run by the Big Smoke brewery. An impressive bank of 20 handpumps serves a wide selection of ales and ciders including a few of their own and numerous changing guests from the region and further afield, plus various craft keg taps also. Condition of those sampled was excellent. The pub itself is a well-worn 1930s-ish house with lots of original features, nicely unmodernised and pleasingly tatty round the edges. There is a covered patio and garden at the rear. Recommended.

A good traditional pub with an extensive array of ales on offer backed up a selection of real cider,5 on my visit.Bare floorboards throughout and dark much in evidence all around gives the place a basic yet very effective feel.Most of the beers on my visit were plus 5% which is OK but not what I was really looking for at just after mid-day and second pub in,so was left with a choice between Darkstar Partridge which is the most ordinary beer they do in my opinion so I went for Binghams Hop Harvest which was a little hazy and lacking in flavour,that aside it is a good pub and nice to see and hear a vinyl record playing in the background. A pub certainly worth returning to but I think I prefer its sister pub the Antelope in Surbiton based on this visit.

Much has been made of this destination ale house since it reopened almost three years ago, so it was good to finally make my long overdue maiden visit last month. The pub has a slightly off-the-beaten-track location, close to the pleasant Twickenham Green, but far enough away from the station and natural path of the rugby-going masses to ensure that it doesn’t get too badly mobbed when there’s a game on up the road. The place has a fairly traditional feel to it, with a broad main bar to the front accessed via a nice stained glass porch with the servery directly opposite. The room is bare boarded and has some particularly appealing curved banquettes in each of the two front bay windows. The servery has plenty of dark wood, including an attractive shelf for the empty glasses, supported by nicely worked wooden pillars. The walls are three quarter panelled, with the space above filled by the inevitable swathe of pump clips which have also spilled over onto the ceiling. The left hand side of the room has a nice, small brick fireplace with a couple of low padded benches either side, as well as a book swap on the rear wall. A door here leads you into a second room, which looks a lot smarter than the main bar. The walls here are tiled and there are some comfy looking modern seating options to choose from. Doors to the rear lead out to a nice paved garden with plenty of typical bench seating. I didn’t notice anyone eating, but blackboards announced the availability of Sunday roasts, although a pie menu suffices for the rest of the week. Music played in the background throughout my stay and I noticed a turntable behind the bar with a stack of vinyl next to it. The rather daunting row of hand pumps that greet you as soon as you enter, were dispensing XT 6 and 7, Twickenham Sundancer, Bingham’s Brickwork Bitter and Hot Dog Stout, Roosters Astro, Great Heck Citra, Arbor Bravo, Late Knights Hop of the Morning and Wild Beer Co Fresh, with six real ciders and perries occupying the left hand bank of pumps. I tried the Astro, which was pretty good, but not quite as sparkling as I’d hoped for. The staff were extremely courteous and very helpful, answering endless questions about beer styles. I was expecting a bit of a ‘beer tickers’ feel to this place, but was pleased to see a good clientele mix relaxing in a traditional pub environment. The beer range is the undoubted star here, but it doesn’t feel like it’s the only reason to visit, which is not always an easy balance to get right. I think this should rightly be regarded as one of London’s finest.

It seems impossible that this beer and cider festival sort of place was once a humble Bass Charrington pub. It is an unashamed imitation of the likes of the Southampton Arms in Gospel Oak. Happily it has a bit more room than that establishment. In common with those pubs on the other side of London they play vinyl LPs. I had a Eureka moment half way through my second pint as to why these vinyl records never seem to be scratched as I remember from back in the day. The reason is because the records are such a load of crap that they only ever get played once and rarely all the way through. The record pn my visit was what sounded like Otis Redding's Greatest Hits, a record that seemed to go on far longer than it should. Of the eighteen pumps six have cider and the rest have beers which could be just about anything. I noticed beers from Windsor & Eton and Belleville but none from Twickenham. All beers were priced at £3.60 apart from the silly (8.5%) one. I went for the Wild Beer Company Madness IPA which was in good nick apart from a haze and with a 6.8% ABV good value. I then went for the silly option at £4.00 a pint in the form of Arbor Tiny The Welder. This was a Double American IPA that sadly was cloudy but tasted OK. Because of the beer and cider selection it's a great place, but I have doubts about it given that neither of my two pints were clear.

Once upon a time, pubs were places where the people provided the entertainment - not fruit machines, not large screen TVs, but people. Perhaps some live music, a game of shove ha'penny, a pint or three and lively conversation. Once upon a time has come again at the Sussex Arms. This pub, just off Twickenham Green harks back to the old days. There are up to 12 (I think) real ales on offer and six real ciders. The ales vary constantly and there is no one 'regular' ale. Just a different selection, even from tiny microbreweries, every day. All draught beer and cider is (as of this writing) £3.50 a pint and they operate a superb loyalty card scheme. Buy 9 beers, get the 10th for free. I use mine regularly. The food is good, though slightly pricey. The pies are made by AJ and are usually excellent, though the last couple I've had were slightly less good than usually (slightly over cooked meat and pastry). The atmosphere is lovely. It is an old-fashioned pub - no posh gastro seating here. A long bar displays the plethora of ales on offer and also hides the record player (yep, vinyl) that supplies any recorded (as opposed to live) music. There is a large, decently tended garden. There is live music many evenings. Again, like with the beer, there is something for (nearly) every taste. I attend with friends every second Monday for the Sessioneers (yep, not a great name, but you get the jist) - acoustic rock, folk, rock n roll and the like. You can also find Irish music, bluegrass, blues - whatever (older) music takes your fancy (I've never seen hip hop or the like, thankfully). The clientèle varies from the stereotypical real ale drinker (beardy, male, older - including a guy who is the spit of Walder Frey from Game of Thrones) through to younger families and singles. All in all, a pub I thoroughly recommend.

I had been told in hushed tones about this ale and cider mecca at the Nags Head, so thought I’d better pop along and see what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately for me I visited it on a whim coming back off a crawl from London and – unwittingly – managed to hit the immediate aftermath of the army and navy games. Anyhow after dodging the wasteland and inebriates, it took about 15 minutes from the station to get here on foot. On entering, it was rammed. We were lucky to nab a small table that came vacant just as we arrived. Eighteen pumps dispensing real ale and proper cider/perry apparently, though the bar was so packed we had no way of counting them all. Quantity, of course, does not necessarily relate to quality however most of what we tried was in a good state if not quite tip-top. Staff were young, enthusiastic and trying their best though I think an older, wiser head to steady the pace a little would have helped. Inevitably, the clips from beers past were snaking round the ceiling which is de rigueur in destination ale pubs these days. There was what looked like a proper fire, some banquette seating, dark wood panelling and large potted plants. A number of high-up stained windows sensibly swing open so the atmosphere was not as hot and stuffy as it perhaps could have been. There’s a slight fake-Tudor feel to the place, ‘like a Berni Inn’ or so my semi-legible email to myself says anyway. As noted by Mr Bonser the bus right outside the door so if you are on an all-day Travelcard, the skip back to the Reading-Waterloo line is fairly easy if you aren’t inclined to walk back to Twickenham BR. So all-in-all, quite impressive; I imagine I’ll be darkening its doors again before long.