The Crab Tree, Shoreham-By-Sea

The Crab Tree is an L shaped Fullers pub that consists of a dining are to the left and a lounge type bar to the right. The bar supports three hand pumps that were drawing Fullers Wild River, Pride and HSB during my visit just before closing on a recent Saturday night. There is also a limited draught range of Fosters, Kronenburg, Stella, Aspells cider and Guinness. There was some very low background music playing and the only other customer was watching a muted boxing match via Channel 5 on the lone plasma screen. There is no Sky Sports here and I didn’t notice any advertisements for live entertainment. This pub is very handily placed next to the eastbound platform of Shoreham-by-Sea Railway Station. For this reason I may find myself in here again, but I wouldn’t purposely go out of my way to revisit as I found it a little sterile.

This is a large Fuller's pub adjacent to the station, serving Pride, HSB and guest Ossett Brewery Pale Gold yesterday. The bar is ahead on entering and has numerous high backed stools all along. Fortunately it was rather quiet so I could see the pump clips. The bar area is carpeted and has an ornate patterned ceiling. The room runs around the side of the bar and leads to a small room resembling a Victorian drawing room with a pair of sofas facing each other and a large fireplace. The left area has a wooden floor and tables with menus so I suppose is the preferred dining area. Beyond here is a large garden with a kids play area. There is a TV over the doorway between the two main rooms, switched off early evening. There are some leaded windows remaining with stained glass top lights. An attractive and clean and tidy pub but it felt a little austere. I imagine the target clientele is a mature affluent type more likely to drop in for a meal than a couple of pints. B&B available.