The Huntsman & Hounds, Corbets Tey, Upminster

This is a smart Ember Inns pub in a village just outside Upminster. Like many pubs in this chain, it's a large premises with the usual chopped up, opened out interior, carpeted for the most part, but with some exposed floorboards here and there and quarry stone tiles around the bar area. The servery, occupying the centre of the pub, has a nice curved bar counter with neutral painted panels and a modern, dark wood bar back. It's not particularly easy to establish the pub's original layout thanks to countless bits of retained wall, lintel beams and even a fireplace to the left of the entrance that looks through to the adjacent seating area, all of whoch send rather mixed messages about the way the pub would've once looked. Mixed seating options have been provided throughout, including tub chairs, padded benches and loads of basic tables and chairs. The walls are all painted in neutral colours and many of the furnishings feel like they are straight out of some sort of cheap interior design catalogue. Lamps, potted plants and a few random framed photos add some life to the place, offset by many corporate blackboards listing various offers. There were two operational handpulls on the bar, dispensing Dark Star Hophead (£4.65 a pint and in great nick) and Adnams Ghost Ship with London Pride and Doom Bar both clipped as 'coming soon'. The place was doing a decent Saturday evening dining trade, especially with family groups. I thought this was quite a smart, well presented pub, even if it had that slightly bland, cost-cutting feel that some of these corporate pub chains suffer from. It offers enough seating for it not to feel too food-led, even when arriving at peak dining time, as I did, and some well-kept ale seals the deal and makes this worth the short bus ride or 20 minute walk from Upminster to check out. Date of visit - 2nd November 2024

This is a suburban pub a short distance from what appears to be the original village of Corbets Tey to the West. It's a mile South of Upminster Station so is one of the remotest of Greater London pubs, the border into Essex is about a mile away. It's part of the Ember Inns chain, one I am not that familiar with. The inside is a single bar separated into smaller areas with the one on the right as I entered taken by a party from the nearby Crematorium. Although there were eight handpumps only five were available all from established regional brewers. The uninspiring choice was Brakspear Bitter, GK Abbot, Elgood's Black Dog Mild and Adnam's Broadside & Ghost Ship. I went for the Black Dog Mild (£2.99) which was in reasonably good nick. This pub is GBG 2015 listed but sadly their description didn't match what I encountered as there were no microbrewery beers anywhere to be seen. I completely forgot to ask about the CAMRA discount mentioned here but omitted on the Whatpub site.