The Blue Anchor, Reigate

I don't believe I've ever been to Reigate before and walking down from the railway station to the Blue Anchor, I was struck by how pretty a town it was, but that it was such a shame that it was so blighted by traffic. The Blue Anchor is on the main A25 road west out of Reigate, but still well within the town centre. The large pub sign featuring a blue anchor is quite apparent. Inside, there is a simple L-shaped interior. But continue through the pub and you will find a suntrap patio whose rear overlooks a cricket pitch. As luck would have it, a game was in full flow and several people were crowded around the rear of the patio garden watching the action. Elsewhere on the patio, there are also some covered seating booths for when the weather is not quite so nice. It was a little disappointing to see just a single real ale on here. That was Surrey from the extremely local (just a few doors up the road) Pilgrim brewery. Not exactly my favourite beer of the day, I still enjoyed my time supping it in the sunshine.

This is a very simple single room pub with a large beer garden on the main road through Reigate. The pub has a basic L-shaped layout with a similarly shaped servery on the right-hand wall. The room feels quite intimate and cosy thanks to a proliferation of dark wood, from the floorboards and servery to wood panelled walls and dark beams crossing the ceiling, muted lighting and traditional pub furniture. The servery is broken by a couple of very large load-bearing pillars which suggest that there might once have been a multiple-room layout here, but it all felt very much open-plan on my visit, perhaps in part because all customers were sat outside. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of seating available inside though, with tables and chairs in both the front part of the room and down the entire length of the left-hand wall. Décor is a little lacking, which means that the traditional feel engendered by the fittings and fixtures is lost a little thanks to too much empty wall space. Some breweriana, plain mirrors and a framed pub cricket (?) shirt fail to adequately compensate. Doors to the rear take you out to a large patio garden with excellent views of the local cricket pitch, although a side-screen was partly blocking the view on this occasion. A great many picnic tables are available out here, many of which are sheltered under large umbrellas, and there is a row of bench seating booths under a canopy to the left. Nice hanging baskets and flowerbeds add a good splash of colour and a persistent pub cat was eagerly eyeing up the potential for any spillages from the few folks who were eating out here. There was just the one hand pump in action on this visit, dispensing a good pint of Pilgrim Gold Spice with two other turned Pilgrim clips and a fourth pump left unused. A friendly barmaid ensured I used the hand sanitiser and filled in my contact details, but by the time all this was done, she had vanished, leaving me in the care of a barman who served me without breaking from his conversation with a colleague for even one second. I quite liked this place but thought it really lacked any kind of distinctive character internally, which has already meant it is starting to fade from memory a little. The garden was the big selling point from what I could see and I enjoyed drinking a good beer from a brewery located a few doors down whilst watching the wickets tumble out on the cricket pitch at the back, but whether that is enough to make me want to return is very much up for debate.

Recently reopened after a period of closure, the pub has a single L shaped room with wooden flooring supporting various mixed seating. Two cask beers available from the four handles on the bar, both from a fairly local brewery Pilgrim ,Progress and Surrey,the former was decent. On the downside modern dance music was being played far to loud, this at early lunchtime , competing with Come dine with me on TV, I'm not sure the young Eastern European couple (I think) who appeared to be the new tenants, have completely grasped the meaning of a traditional English pub.A pub that could do better in my view but nonetheless better open than closed.

Official site of The Blue Anchor - www.blueanchor-reigate.co.uk

Official site of The Blue Anchor - www.blueanchor-reigate.co.uk

There were two ales on in here - Sharp's Atlantic and Harvey's Best (£3.85 a pint). We were hoping for a Pilgrim Brewery ale in here, as the brewery is next door, and one of our number had seen it in here in the past. The Harvey's was in excellent shape though. I didn't see any sign of food, but to be fair we weren't looking for any as we had already eaten at the Bull's Head. As others have already said, it appears that the cottage to the right has been incorporated into the pub. Inside the pub, the area on the right - which would have been in the erstwhile cottage - down a step or two is carpeted, framed by dark wooden posts, has a couple of sofas with low tables in front of the wood-framed brick-built fireplace. The main area of the pub runs back down the left hand side of the room, and is furnished with a row of normal tables and chairs. But the pub's best feature is indeed the garden, which looks out over a low wall to the neighbouring cricket ground. We were looking forward to sitting outside on a late August day, but of course the British summer weather prevented this. This is a rather nice pub. It was very quiet when I was in there - my group were the only customers in there - but I hope it gets busier in the evening or at weekends. This is another Reigate pub which I would be happy to revisit - in the hope that it would be nice enough to sit outside and would have a Pilgrim beer on.

A bit unprepossessing at first, this pub has a rather stripped-down, basic appearance, apart from a snug area off to one side with sofas. Most of the clientele seemed to be out in the large paved garden to the rear. Disappointingly, the only ale available from a row of pumps at time of visit was Sharp's Atlantic but it was drinkable enough. The menu was also not hugely exciting, however the chicken burger that appeared was excellent and genuinely home made. By the end of the session I had warmed to the place a bit. Overall, pleasant enough but has the potential to be much better.