The British Queen, Eastbourne

Having been to several village/small town pubs all with a bit of a rural feel, our visit to the British Queen came as a bit of a shock to the system. With Willingdon being situated on the edge of Eastbourne, this is a popular suburban local with the feel of an estate pub. There are 3 rooms - a large saloon on one side with a lounge and a bar on the other. The bar had a pool table, games machine and a dartboard. The saloon was carpeted with a scattering of diners using both the saloon and the lounge. TVs are scattered around, but all were off with music playing instead. Almost every available window was filled with Union Jacks as part of their VE Day celebrations. There is also a garden area to the rear of the pub and adjacent to its car park. Various other events were being promoted, such as a darts tournament and a charity day. So, this is clearly a pub which values and is valued by the local community. Long Man Best Bitter is the regular cask ale. They also had Wadworth 6X with Thistly Cross Whisky Cask cider on a third handpull, but fetched from the cellar. Other draft ciders were Thatcher's Gold & Haze & Cidershed, whilst Sharp's Atlantic could also be found on keg. Once I'd got over the initial shock of how different this pub was to others we'd been to in East Sussex, I felt quite at home here and my Whisky Cask cider went down quite nicely.

Relatively unspoilt suburban pub with three separate rooms in a L-shaped arrangement and some coloured glass retained in the front windows. Simple, traditional furniture in the public bar (with pool table) at the front, the slightly larger saloon bar on the left-hand side and in rear dining lounge. Duplicated selection of London Pride, the local Long Man Best Bitter (£4.50) and Old Rosie cider from the bank of four handpumps on each counter.

Official site of The British Queen - the-british-queen.co.uk

Official site of The British Queen - the-british-queen.co.uk