The Oakwood, Glossop

A big corner pub belonging to Robinsons and modernised inside in line with their philistine tendencies. The left hand end is a formal dining area with wait to be seated signs, to the right is a bar overflowing with tiles. The place is stiff with them; on the floor, on the wall and up the counter front, most are patterned so it’s migraine producing. The bar is also used for eating so the aromas of Korean rice bowl or suchlike will enhance your drinking experience. The tile encrusted counter has six pulls but it’s two times Unicorn, two times Dizzy Blonde (good, a touch green) and Hopp, there are also ten keg taps on the bar back of varying degrees of interest, no handy beer board you need to peer across the counter to see what’s on. Obviously the hard surfaces make the sweary gob shite customers even louder. Camra says card only payments but I didn’t enquire.

Official site of The Oakwood - www.robinsonsbrewery.com

Official site of The Oakwood - www.robinsonsbrewery.com

Can not take to this place at all

A fairly basic street corner local on the main road through Glossop, with an unusual atmosphere - a cross between a community centre and an ad hoc art exhibition. The bar is in the front room, which has wooden benches, chairs and tables with no soft furnishings whatsoever, making for a very harsh acoustic. The windows were all covered in condensation. A large picture on the wall near the bar depicted the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust (by John Kimpton, influenced by a poem by Paul Burke: "Seeds of finality now reap their awesome promise"). Not sure if this is what I want to see while supping a beer... Entry is via a door in the side street - the door on the corner is permanently shut, as far as I could make out. The bar is to the right on entering, and to the left is another room that is set out like an informal dining room or canteen, with numerous pictures on the walls. Most people were eating snacks and light meals prepared in the adjacent kitchen, and drinking soft drinks; we were the only people drinking beer on our mid-afternoon visit. On the bar was a pair of hand pumps carrying pump clips for Hartleys XB and Robinsons Unicorn, but only the latter was on. The beer was OK but nothing to write home about. On the CD player was a mixture of blues and jazz played at a reasonable volume.

The Oakwood is a decent looking pub that is in the middle of Glossop. The pub was quite smart inside and looked liked it had been opened out but there were still lots of different drinking areas. This pub is a Robinsons tied house and there were three real ales on the bar i had a drink of Robinsons bitter and this was a very nice drink the other beers were Robinsons Hatters mild and Fredericks. I thought this was quite a nice pub to have a relaxing drink in. Pub visited 30/3/2002