Railway Tavern, Chelmsford

The Railway Tavern is a long and thin laminate floored pub with a green banquette under the front window, and up the left-hand wall to the edge of the serving counter that sits midway up. There’s more seating at the rear with banquettes upholstered railway green and striped train seat fabric, which fits in the railway theme found throughout. On the bar is a premium and craft keg selection alongside nine hand pumps that were drawing Wibblers Brewery’s IPA, Mighty Oak Brewing’s Oscar Wilde, Boddingtons, Adnams’ Old Ale, Dark Star’s Hophead, Three Brothers Brewing’s Trilogy Blonde, Fullers’ ESB and Chevallier Brewing Co’s Meraki Stout. I had a decent half of Oscar Wilde that was served by a friendly barman who I believe is the governor’s son, if my earwigging was correct. There’s a television, it was off, but there was some background music from the likes of the Lightening Seeds. I liked it in here and will revisit next time I’m in town.

Long and narrow pub immediately opposite the entrance to Chelmsford railway station. It currently opens at either 10am or 10:30. So, it made a good first stop for us in Chelmsford after leaving the station. We were the first in shortly after 11am on a Friday morning. There is a seating area at the front as you enter and a larger area to the rear beyond the bar. Beyond that was a door leading to an outside seating area. Handpumps are used at either end of the bar. But ales are also listed on blackboards, also at each end. Ales are mostly from East Anglia. Greene King Abbot is a regular beer. So is Red Fox IPA. Wily Ol' Fox was another Red Fox beer on offer. Other guests were Dartmoor Jail Ale, Maldon Puck's Folly & Woodforde's Mardler's Mild. The real cider was Weston's Rosie's Pig. What struck me most about the pub was the friendly nature of the 2 barmaids. We told them we were doing a tour of the town's pubs and they invited us back for a nightcap at the end of the day. Certainly a pub I will go back to at some point and a fitting start to our crawl.

Official site of Railway Tavern - www.grayandsons.co.uk

Official site of Railway Tavern - www.grayandsons.co.uk