The Swan, Crawley

A couple of minutes out of the town centre into the first gentle wave of suburbia. An unusual E shaped interior and quite nicely done, if somewhat 'woman goes shopping at The Range' in places. There's a traditional underbelly with varnished wainscoting, brick fireplace and simple colour scheme. Nice rear patio area. Very much a 'God save the Queen, armed forces, NHS and the football' vibe but perfectly friendly if liberally sweary. Let down at the bar, no cask available and no means of dispense that I could see, either – so quite a come-down from the older reviews below. Irony value then that a collection of old pump clips are displayed above the bar and that my Guinness came in a Wadworth glass - it was at least pretty good. Lack of cask means it won’t score above a 6 but if ale isn’t the be-all and end-all then you might want to check it out. A couple of decent ales and they could be onto a winner.

The Swan is a pub of two halves with a small comfortable and quiet bar with fireplace to the left and larger bar to the right that was busy with an after-work local crowd during a recent Friday visit. There is a dartboard to the right rear just before a door to the pool room. There are at least two televisions and Sky Sports is advertised. These were off during my visit in favour of some background music. Live music is held here on Fridays and Saturdays and there is a DJ from 16:00 on Sundays. Tuesday is open mic night; the pool table is free on Wednesdays and there is a weekly quiz on Thursdays. The bars support a standard keg range and there are nine hand pumps across the two bars. Timothy Taylors Boltmaker, Ruddles County and Fullers London Pride were available from both bars. The third bank of three hand pumps in the quieter bar was unused. The plethora of old pump clips around both top bars is evidence that there is a rotating cask ale range. The only food I noted as being advertised was the homemade beef stew for £5.50. I would be surprised if this was the only available hot food. I found this to be a decent local boozer that I would return to visit.

Difficult to tell how old this recently reopened pub is since the dark red brickwork and tile hanging has been a local building style for a very long time. Anyway, the etched glass is old enough to feature Smoking Room on one window, but the three rooms around the main counter have been partially opened out at some stage (although the central section with the dartboard is devoid of furniture and there are only a few benches around the rear pool table). However, there is also another smaller, tapered bar around the side with more seating. Doom Bar and Pride available from two of the three handpumps, but Exmoor Christmas Ale (£3.80) was also being dispensed directly from a cask on the counter.