The Stanley Arms, Chester

The Stanley Arms is a cheap as chips local’s boozer that had an estate crowd in when I visited on a recent Monday evening. Seating wraps around the exterior walls in the bar area and there’s a pool table to the right. Cricket was airing via TNT Sport on the televisions and some background music played off the jukebox. Standard and premium keg was available. This is a run-of-the-mill forgettable pub that I’ll be leaving to the locals next time I pass.

There area couple of handpumps on the bar, but it seems that they are for display purposes only as they don’t sell real ale despite the “cask ales” sign outside. There was no sign of food on Wednesday evening, which is probably just as well as the place smelled of cleaner as they chose the time of my visit to clean the pub. A central island servery is surrounded by drinking areas furnished with well worn banquettes and normal tables and chairs. There’s a dartboard at the back. What we have here is a magnificent looking building from the outside, with some classic brewer’s Tudor, but ordinary and quite tatty inside. My diet coke was in fine form though, chosen in preference to John Smith’s or whatever other fizz products they sold. Frankly the disinfectant encouraged me to leave as soon as possible. Not one for a return visit.