The Imperial, Crewe

The open plan Imperial has televisions located throughout, but all were off except for two small ones mounted on the back wall of the bar. One of these was airing World Championship snooker via BBC and the other cricket on Sky Sports. Both televisions were muted in favour of some background music. This is a large pub so I was surprised to see only two other customers, especially as other pubs were quite busy during my Saturday afternoon crawl of the area. Maybe the lack of real ale had a baring as the three hand pumps were all off, Sharp’s Doom Bar, Wainwright and one other. This left a standard keg range alongside Amstel and Birra Moretti. The bar on the rear wall sits between a pool table to the left and a dartboard to the right. Further to the right is the rear exit to the beer garden, that I didn’t visit on this occasion. In the front centre window is a small stage area with a second dartboard. The lights and speaker arrangement on walls around the stage suggest that this pub hosts live music events. I found the service to be friendly, but don’t think I would go out of my way to visit here again.

A large late-Victorian high-ceilinged traditional pub, nicely refurbished, boasting no fewer than 3 dartboards and a pool table. The interior is opened through but retains different seating areas and there is an outdoor patio area at the back. Draught ales were Wainwright, Doom Bar and a house ale of uncertain parentage. A good solid pub in a rather depressed part of town.

A traditional purpose built pub that has had most of the internal walls removed leaving a large open space that is filled with multiple TV screens showing sports, any remaining gaps being filled with loud music. There are three hand pumps and I had a half of something called Jennings Digadig (it's a Marstons pub, or at least the beers were all by Marstons) which vanished without trace leaving no impression whatsoever. Date of visit: 14th January 2017