The William Bourne, Chessington

Lively community local with a bright, refurbished interior arranged round the central bar, with different games and dining areas. Good outdoor area with front terraces and large garden. Draught ales of usual national brands: GK, Doom Bar etc but that sampled in fair condition.

Official site of The William Bourne - www.thewilliambourne.co.uk

Typical thirties roadhouse once owned by Ind Coope but now in Stonegate's down market 'Local Pub' format. Once there would have been three or four rooms but now all knocked through in the usual manner. Some of the furnishings and fittings appear to be Festival of Britain vintage, though it's all a mishmash and a bit social clubby as Rex says below. It did have issues in the past but now seems well run with a friendly welcome. Just GK IPA and Young's Ordinary when we called early evening, but stuck to Wifebeater as that seems to be the drink of choice. Food is the usual freezer to microwave fare. At the moment it seems to be making a fair stab at being a community local, it's certainly popular enough, though I wouldn't go out of my way to come here.

Official site of The William Bourne - www.thewilliambourne.co.uk

Marston’s EPA and London Pride (£2.80 a pint) were available here. The Pride was very hazy, but I persevered with it as I didn’t fancy the EPA, and it did fall into the “just about drinkable” category. This is a Stonegate pub, so all the tables sported the usual full colour glossy menus, plus a separate menu giving the various daily meal deals, such as burger and a drink for £5.99 on a Monday. It always peeves me a bit that these meal/drink deals never offer anything that I want to drink – John Smith’s was the bitter included. The pub itself has a bit of brewers’ Tudor on the outside, but I’m pretty sure that it’s an inter-war pub built during the expansion of London. Inside it’s carpeted with mainly normal tables and chairs but with a couple of tall tables/stools. There’s a room stretching round to the right and rear of the bar counter, but the majority of seating is at the front of the room. The usual pub accoutrements of games machines, fruit machines, TVs and a pool table are all present here. There’s not much in the way of decor worth mentioning, but there is a fair amount of outdoor seating, with a garden on the right, and some tables at the front which are more easily accessible for smokers. It’s obviously very children friendly as there several family groups in here on Thursday afternoon. The adults of both sexes in the large extended family group sitting near me clearly thought it acceptable behaviour to use foul language in front of the children of the group but I accept they may not have been typical of customers in here. The place did have something of the atmosphere of a caravan social club about it, but maybe the locals like it like that. I hope that I was unlucky enough to hit it on a bad day, but nonetheless I can’t see me returning.