The Chequers, Oxford

One of Oxford's old alleyway pubs, this one is owned by Nicholson's and retains some character despite the various makeovers it has received over the years / decades / centuries... Now has a something of a lounge at the far end, and more of a hall-like appearance to the entrance area. Not a bad selection from eight of ten handpumps, with three ciders in addition to the likes of My Generation Session Pale Ale (£3.56, inclusive of 20% Camra discount), Millionaire from Wild Beer and Thornbridge Jaipur.

Tucked away down an alleyway just off the High Street, this looks quite inviting with it’s courtyard seating and black timber cladding on the exterior and I also noticed that it was a Nicholson’s pub who’s outlets I have generally enjoyed when in London. Internally it’s quite large and split over a few different levels. The largest bar is on the downstairs floor and this was fairly traditional with a mixture of wood strip and quarry tiles on the floor, battleship grey paintwork and some elaborate cornice work on the ceiling. An old fireplace at one end potentially looked a bit of a cosier spot, but it was very busy and very noisy in there, so not a relaxing place to sit. Elsewhere on this level was a table football game and several TV screens showing the rugby. A second level again looked as if it could be a bit cosier with exposed stone walling and a smaller, seemingly disused, bar counter, but again the projector screen showing the rugby and the high volume from the game completely spoilt the ambience. We escaped up a few more steps to the upper level, but even here the sport commentary was unnecessarily piped to additional speakers. The menu offered a decent enough selection of “pub grub” dishes with options such as fish & chips, chicken & chips, macaroni cheese, sausage and mash and so on, as well as a number of burgers and steaks. Most of the prices were somewhere around the £10 - £12 mark, although it was unfortunate that both of the items we tried to order had sold out. In the end we settled on the Hunter’s Chicken and the Smoked Haddock & Kedgeree Fishcakes, both of which were fairly average. Beers on tap were Nicholson’s Pale Ale, Adam Henson’s Rare Breed, Doom Bar, Adnams Ghost Ship, Sadler’s Worcester Sorcerer, Black Sheep and Thornbridge Jaipur IPA. The Tribute and Hobgoblin’s Legendary Ruby Beer were apparently coming soon, the latter being the “official” beer of Halloween apparently. Cider’s meanwhile were Mortimer’s Orchard on tap along with Weston’s Old Rosie and Rosie’s Pig stacked up in boxes at the end of the bar. Overall I was rather disappointed with this due to the food availability and noise levels, but perhaps on a different occasion I may have warmed to it more.