The Purley Arms, Purley Oaks, South Croydon

A traditional boozer very popular with traditional boozers and was quite busy even on a freezing Monday evening. It bigger than you think if you enter from the left hand door, which is where most of the regulars congregate near a selection of TV screens showing the footer. If you go through to the more lounge like area there's room to spread out. Quick friendly service, though the ale range is less enterprising than it seems to have been a couple of years ago: Young's Ordinary, Pride, Bombardier, though most punters preferred lager. To be honest it could do with a lick of paint here and there but it's a perfectly pleasant place to call for a pint or two.

This pub has a pretty decent location on the main Brighton Road, easily accessible from Croydon, Purley and Sanderstead. The interior suggests that the pub was previously partitioned, but now it has one room in a flattened U-shape. The bar runs the length of the bottom of the U and opposite it there is a raised seating area with some standard tables and chairs which lets you sit and look out at the busy road outside thanks to the large windows along the front wall. The room is dominated by dark wood, especially around the servery, which, when coupled with the muted lighting, creates quite a nice, cosy ambiance. The remainder of the room, occupying similar sized areas beyond either end of the bar, effectively creates public and lounge bar style areas. The lounge bar end has a fireplace, a large mirror on the wall and some sort of relief carving as well as some decent furniture, whilst the lounge bar end is tattier and without many seating options, although there is a dartboard. Four pumps were dispensing Wytchwood Hobgoblin and Dirty Tackle (£3.00), Courage Directors and Wells Bombardier. I had a pint of the Dirty Tackle, served by a pleasant barman and thought it was in very good shape. A simple food menu was lying on my table and a quick look showed that mains come in at around £4-7. I quite liked it in here and given the quality of beer, service and ambiance, I would probably stop by again if I was down this end of town. It’s certainly an improvement on its nearest competitors, if not perhaps worth the trek out of town for.