The Cross Keys, Thame

Reputedly once regarded as the towns ‘fighting-man’s pub’, this place has since developed a reputation as an excellent alehouse and a bit of a destination pub for fans of cask ale. Positioned on a mini-roundabout at one end of the town centre, the pub has a two room layout that has essentially been knocked through into a single space, but with enough of the old partitioning retained to allow you to mentally subdivide the room. You enter to a carpeted seating area, with the partly opened out wall to your left, beyond which the bar can be found. The seating area offers hard backed benches down the right-hand wall, supplemented by a mix of standard and comfy chairs, plus a few more tables and chairs to the left and a bench in a small recess on the back wall. The walls have tongue and groove panels - full height in some places, half height elsewhere – with dark painted uppers, which helps to create a nice, warm and cosy feel. An arch takes you through to the similarly furnished bar area, with a timber fronted bar counter, modern bar back and a canopy with a row of tankards and pint pots suspended from it. Décor throughout includes a pub mirror, some sports themed items, various bits of breweriana, a few spirit bottles attached to one of the walls and a ceiling rather spectacularly covered with years’ worth of pump clips. A few packs of cards and a cribbage board were on a shelf in the middle of the room for customers to make use of and there was a nice post-lunch buzz to the place from a decent sized crowd. One look at that ceiling would’ve had you excited at the prospects for some good ale at the bar, and there was a decent range available when we arrived, comprising XT 4 and 25, Animal Crow and Hop Kitty, Thame Hoppiness and Flipside Frank N Stein. A board to one side of the bar also listed five real ciders. I opted for a pint of the Crow, which was served to me by a friendly landlady and was in excellent condition. The other customers were a mixed bunch of all ages and the vast majority seemed to be on the cask stuff, which I thought was very encouraging. I have no idea what Thame’s pub scene is like, but I’d be amazed if there’s another pub in town that can come close to this place, which I thought was an excellent alehouse and well worth our decision to detour here from Oxford, specifically to visit the pub. It’s a tidy, well presented establishment with great beer, friendly service and a good ambiance that would most definitely encourage repeat visits – don’t miss it if you’re in town.