The Coach & Horses, Carshalton

Currently closed by order of the licensing authority. http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/Carshalton-pub-temporarily-closed-drug-taking/story-16529299-detail/story.html

The Coach and Horses is a small U shaped local’s boozer that was busy on the Friday evening I visited a month or so ago. Live music is advertised for every weekend and a band was just getting ready to start before I left. There is a dartboard that had some seating on the oche so no darts when the pub is busy. Poker is hosted every Tuesday night from 19:30. The bar is stocked with standard draught and I counted three hand pumps, one of which was unused leaving Bombardier and Greene King IPA as the ale choices. I managed a quarter of a pint of Bombardier before I had to give up as it was minging. There are better pubs in the immediate area so I doubt that I’ll find myself in here again anytime soon.

Very much a locals boozer,the interior is small and groups around a bar running along a rear wall.The exterior is very traditional with fine glazed tiling and leaded windows with harlequin colours.My visit was part of a pub crawl and the sudden influx of strangers did elicit some polite questioning from a few regulars.A small band was just about to start up,and given the ale selection was ,I seem recall,GK IPA and Adnams Broadside(mine not great) it felt appropriate to make this a brief visit.

This is a fairly popular and enjoyable traditional pub on the main High Street through Carshalton. The pleasant, U-shaped room has a selection of seating arranged around the exterior walls and provides plenty of visual stimulation in the form of a large variety of clocks on all walls and a beer bottle collection on some high shelves. The bar promised much, with three painted hand pumps, but only London Pride was being served, with what looked like an Adnams clip turned around. The Pride was perfectly drinkable and was served by a cheery enough barmaid. There was a bit of live music on when I popped in on a recent Friday evening although the punters didn't seem to be paying too much attention to it. A pretty decent pub all things considered and if there had been a better ale selection I can imagine I would have stayed longer. Worthy of investigation.

A traditional style corner pub with fine green tiled exterior and a comfortable enough single room interior. I can't really speak for any local misgivings as it was a fairly quiet lunchtime visit but I certainly didn't get any feelings of intimidation or unfriendliness. The interior has a certain charm with patterned diamond lattice windows, pint pots hanging from the ceiling, bottles and plates around the walls, old historical snippets and a large collection of clocks. 2 reasonably priced (for Surrey) ales (Adnams and Rev James) as well as 4 unusual ciders (2 on hand pump, 2 poured direct from barrels behind the bar). No realcomplaints about quality from my entourage. Regular bingo and quiz nights and a weekly darts discount (pick a number from a hat, throw a single dart and if you hit that number you get the drink for a quid - well it's certainly different!). To the rear is a small patio garden which is probably only of interest to smokers and gnome enthusiasts. Overall I found it an above average and slightly quirky place, a decent enough stop on a local pub crawl (as we were) but it does have some quite healthy competition in the neighbourhood.