The Carpenters Arms, Rochester

The Carpenters Arms is a back street pub that looked fairly decent from the outside. Once inside there is a child gate at the front entrance to stop the pub dog escaping,i wonder why!. The pub has two separate rooms linked by an opened out passage to the left,i had a drink in the front room which has the bar facing,there is bench seating to the left and small tables and chairs to the right,this room was quite busy with locals on my Saturday afternoon visit. The rear room was empty but i did notice a large fish tank to the rear which looked quite nice with lots of fish swimming in it. There were no real ales on the bar which i was expecting in this part of town,i had a drink of John Smiths smooth crap which was crap. This is a very basic locals pub, which is probably best left for them to enjoy. Pub visited 6/6/2015

The interior of the Carpenter’s Arms consists of an island bar that splits the pub into front and rear sections. At the rear there is a large fish tank and a pool table along with a step ladder and some decorating materials. Maybe the management are in the process of sprucing this place up a bit, which it certainly could do with. A handful of very friendly locals were all sitting at the bar in the front of the pub during my Monday evening visit a couple of weeks ago. The plasma screen was off and there is no Sky Sports here. The jukebox would sporadically blurt out a song, which wasn’t really necessary as the banter at the bar was good. Only standard draught was available as the three hand pumps were all unused. I liked the welcome and would use this pub if I lived locally, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to drink here again.

Dating from around 1855, the Carpenters Arms is a Victorian corner pub which has been knocked through to form a single bar with pool table, over-loud jukebox, gaming machine and a rather dim pub dog of the only-just-legal kind. There are some tropical fish in a tank, but they don't really add to the ambiance. It's untidy and a bit shabby, but they look after their locals. Occasional live music acts are advertised, but as they weren't very welcoming of strangers, I don't see people coming far to experience these. No real ale, I had a bottle of Hobgoblin. Probably fine if you live around here.