The Carpenters Arms, Oxted

This is a pleasant rural pub with a bit of a gastro-pub feel to it, but also well respected for its well-kept ale. You enter directly to a slightly opened out main bar area with a mix of exposed floorboards and attractive parquet flooring. Some long pews run along the front wall supported by simple chairs, running as far as the left-hand wall, where a nice fireplace can be found with a stove in the hearth, some fake flowers on the mantelpiece and a collection of carpentry tools in a display case above. There’s also a dartboard over on this side of the room, although I’m not convinced it gets a great deal of use. The bar is to the rear and has a modern wood panelled counter and a stripped out bar back - a consequence of the front part of the pub being opened out into a single space over the years. The right side of the room feels a bit too open and exposed, lacking any kind of partitioning and therefore lacking a bit of character. Standard tables and chairs do their best to fill the space up and there are a few decent animal portraits on the walls which provide some much needed visual distraction, but this side felt a lot plainer than the front section of the pub. Moving further back, there is a conservatory-style extension which seems to have been set up as a formal restaurant space, with plenty more seating and warmer decor, but no customers on our mid-week evening visit. The pub has made it into recent editions of the Good Beer Guide and had four handpulls in operation when we arrived, dispensing Westerham Bulldog, Spirit of Kent and 1965 plus Larkins Traditional. I tried the Spirit of Kent, which was a decent enough drop from a local brewery and in very good condition. We came here mainly for food and found the menu quite expensive but the food was all done to a high standard. The staff were all very friendly and we found the service to be quick and efficient. I think in general I would find this place a bit too food oriented to fully enjoy, but having come here specifically for their food, I found I was actually quite taken by the pub aspects as well. The good service, tasty food and well-kept ale all point to a well-run operation and whilst it didn’t really feel like somewhere a bunch of locals would come in for a session, it still had enough about it to merit stopping in for a pint or two.

Westerham Brewery pub handy for walkers using the many public footpaths and areas of common land on top of the Greensand Ridge. Opened out and modernised inside to leave an attractive 'L'-shaped bar with the dining areas further back and a patio to one side. With five of the six handpumps in use, I found British Bulldog, Summer Perle, Grasshopper, 1965 and the single-hop Sorachi Ace (£4.20, but in great shape) available.