Black Swan, Woking

Country dining pub, with a much extended and thoroughly refurbished interior. No original character left, with large semi-modern eating areas on each side of the widened central corridor where a little general seating can be found. Thankfully, three cask ales are available on handpump: a 'house' 4.0% pale ale of unknown provenance, Landlord and the more local Shere Drop from Surrey Hills (£6.65).

This is a large gastro pub in a small village conveniently positioned just off the M25/A3 intersection and a short drive from RHS Wisley. Film buffs might better know the pub as ‘The Slaughtered Lamb’, as it was used for interior shots of the rural boozer in the movie ‘An American Werewolf in London’, although the interior is unrecognisable from the old-fashioned inn shown in the movie, having been opened out and smartened up in a bid to appeal to Surrey commuter-belt types. Pentagrams were also conspicuous by their absence. Nowadays, you enter through one of two sets of front doors to some large, open-plan seating areas. The left side is perhaps set up a little more formally with tables and chairs in rows down either side, supplemented by a few benches. Meanwhile, the right-hand side feels a bit more homely, or at least as much as that is possible in a pub like this. Comfier furnishings with a few bits of partitioning make this spot perhaps the best bet for those not wanting to eat and there is also easy access from here to the bar which runs down the back wall, with a long counter and modern bar back, both rather devoid of character. Décor throughout involves lots of white walls, smart floorboards (which have replaced the characterful cobbles that once used to skirt the bar area), bland paintings and a few decorative ornaments but not all that much that you would deem inherently ‘pubby’. Perhaps the pub’s best asset these days is its huge garden with ample parking, tonnes of picnic benches and smart garden furniture dotted between well maintained hedges, table tennis tables, bar and BBQ area and outdoor DJ booth. There were also signs for a ‘Bubble Garden’, which appeared to be a grassy space filled with a set of small domes, ideal for socially distanced private dining. There were three ales on at the bar – Taylor Landlord, Greene King IPA and Surrey Hills Shere Drop, the latter in good shape. We stopped in here for some food with friends and found the food was good quality but overpriced and the waitress forgot about our desserts order which meant we were sat around for ages waiting for food that the kitchen didn’t know we wanted! This place seems to be very popular, at least judging by our Saturday early evening visit, and I would say if you’re looking for somewhere to break a journey with some good, if rather pricey, food in a nice garden setting, you could do a lot worse. As a pub in its own right, it doesn’t quite work despite the decent beer quality, although I suspect this isn’t a problem for most of the pub’s current patrons.

The Black Swan interior before its refurbishment achieved its fame in the film 'An American Werewolf in London'. In the film the exterior was actually a cottage located in small village of Crickadarn. In the film the pub was called The Slaughtered Lamb.