The Anchor, Leatherhead

Situated within easy walking distance of the High Street on a busyish country road, The Anchor is a Grade 2 listed cottage style building that apparently dates back to the 15th century. The interior features low black oak beams, a wooden floor, much exposed brickwork ,some horse brasses and copper plates, and a splendid inglenook fireplace. It’s a cosy and comfortable interior with a welcoming and traditional feel. The walls are decorated with some old photographs of the pub and what is evidently the pub’s very own golfing society. It’s a single bar pub, but with a small dedicated corner at the back has a public bar feel to it with a dartboard and TV. There’s a rather unstructured and untidy looking garden at the front with a few wooden benches that have seen better days and what looks like the former village green stocks. A prominent sandwich board on the pavement outside was still advertising “Live music on 16 October”, even though it was now 23 October – a full week later. A basic food / snacks menu is offered at lunchtimes which, notably, includes a traditional roast lunch every Wednesday. I didn’t get round to asking what was so special about Wednesdays. A former Courage pub, it now proudly sells itself as a Free House and was offering 5 real ales – Harveys Best, London Pride, Adnams Broadside, Surrey Hills Shere Drop and Courage Best. Both the Harveys and the Shere Drop were in superb form, but at predictably high Surrey prices of £ 3.45p and £ 3.40p respectively. The pub is listed in the 2011 CAMRA Good Beer Guide and has had previous listings as well, but, notably, I didn’t see any GBG stickers anywhere nor any blackboard listing the real ales with gravities and tasting notes, as one often ones. I did see however the ubiquitous CAMRA mirror on the wall next to where I was sat. There’s 2 pubs in the village in the 2011 CAMRA Good Beer Guide and, conveniently, they’re within a few hundred yards of each other. On the basis of my visit to each of them last Saturday, this is the better all round experience of the two by some considerable margin.