The Garland, Redhill

Situated a five minute walk from the train station on the main road heading south out of Redhill, the Garland is an excellent, traditional Harvey's pub - their sole representative in Surrey. To enter the pub, you'll need to climb a short flight of steps before you emerge into the U-shaped bar area. This is a carpeted room with the servery directly opposite the door, hidden in part by two large pillars which are clad with some pleasing modern wood panels. The servery has a marvellous curved counter and gantry with some fine cut glass on the bar back. Standard tables and chairs are the only form of seating, having been arranged evenly around the perimeter, with those down the windowless left hand side each sporting a lit table lamp. The walls have low panelling with old wallpaper above and have been covered with black and white photos, blackboards detailing various pub attractions including the ale list, CAMRA certificates and flyers for local events, with a dartboard hung awkwardly in the front right corner. To the rear right there is a separate room of sorts, dominated by a bar billiards table, but with a second dartboard squeezed into a gap alongside. The walls here are covered with various flyers and gig posters, Harveys promotional material and some nice old whiskey mirrors. Music played quietly throughout my visit and the blackboards detailed various live performances that were due to take place in the pub over the coming weeks, plus a beer festival set for the end of June. A door to the rear left leads out to a decent sized garden with plenty of furniture, which was proving particularly popular on a warm Spring afternoon. There were five Harvey's ales on handpull when I arrived, although there were a few more pumps left unused, which suggests the range may widen during busier times. The options on this occasion were Sussex Best, Armada, Knots of May, IPA and Olympia. A very friendly and welcoming barmaid poured me a pint of the Armada which ,as you might expect from such a revered pub, was in excellent condition. This is a very good pub which seems to get all of the basics right, to provide a very satisfying traditional pub feel replete with some top class ale. The place has a very uncomplicated feel to it and is the sort of place you could easily find yourself losing an evening in. It's clearly the best pub in the local area and makes a compelling argument for jumping off the train at Redhill to give it a try.

Doesn't require much by way of introduction, this is Redhill’s nationally-recognized pub. U shaped interior, carpeted, cosy and has relatively modern pseudo-Victoriana wood cladding. Live music advertised and also noted as dog friendly. To the right are a darts board and bar billiards. A Harvey's house, there was pretty much the full range on my Friday afternoon visit; IPA, Best, Armada, Old (excellent nick) and Kiss (good shape). Friendly landlady asked if my two halves were for a whole pint, old skool. Busy at lunchtime, which is testament to its appeal. Also noted some younger elements amongst the crowd of older patrons. Worth the plaudits, this one.

This isn't an original Harvey's pub but one that they took on in the 1990s. It formed part of their steady march towards and finally into London. I did come here once a few years after it opened and don't have any recollection of it being an outstanding pub so I was surprised to see scores of 9 and 10 below. My favourite Harvey's pubs are rural rather than town ones. There's little else that hasn't been said about the interior other than I did notice two dart boards. It has been knocked into one room so isn't totally original but I bet that was done by Ind Coope the previous owners. It was quiet on my Thursday mid afternoon visit with a small group of old duffers sat at the bar. There were four Harvey's beers ranging in price from £3.30 to £3.85, IPA, Best, Old and Armada. I went for the Armada having had an exceptional pint of it last Winter at their Hove outlet. Sadly this didn't live up to it, I suspect I got the top of a fresh cask in Hove. Having said all that there was nothing wrong with the pint and it went down OK. This is a good town pub owned by a good regional brewer but I don't rate it as being anything exceptional. Possibly the lack of good pubs in the Redhill area has added to the credentials of it.

The Garland is a Harveys’ pub that I popped into on a recent Thursday evening when it was pretty busy. The interior is cosy and U shaped with standard seating to the right of the entrance. To the right rear are a bar billiards table and a dartboard. The left hand wall is lined with tables that support lamps for the reading of newspapers. I didn’t note the presence of a television, but there was some background music playing. I counted eight hand pumps on the bar that were drawing five of the Harveys’ range. Live music is advertised for every Saturday night. I liked it in here and found it to be the best pub I visited during my crawl of the immediate area.