The Mayflower, Old Leigh, Leigh-On-Sea

The Mayflower is easily the best of the pubs along the High Street. It feels much more traditional and authentic than the other establishments along this stretch. There are two small rooms to the front, with the main room to the rear. Dried hops on the walls and beams help create a pleasant drinking environment. 4 regular beers here are Mauldon's Silver Adder, St Austell Proper Job, George's Cockleboats & Crouch Vale Brewer's Gold. The guest beers were from Leigh-on-Sea - Legra Pale & Six Little Ships. Lilley's Elderflower Cider was also available. Greene King Level Head was on keg, along with Aspalls. My Cockleboats was served to me by a young but very competent barman who was happy to advise which of the beers was the last pulled through. Most meals here come with chips (there is a fish and chip outlet at the front of the pub). Ice creams are also sold. A TV was on and was showing BBC News on mute, whilst music was playing. As mentioned below, this one does not benefit from nice river views like the others, with some boatyard buildings blocking any potential views. However, it wasn't particularly busy on my visit and I felt that the atmosphere was just right.

As described below, this is modern wood finish room tucked round the back of an ice cream/fish & chip outlet. Too busy for its own good, a fairly small interior and difficult to get to the bar. GBG listed and there were a few on, so I deliberately went for the assumed lowest shifting cask, a raspberry porter from Wantsum, which was a bit flabby (NBSS 2). There are limited views of the estuary, the weakest of the waterside pubs. I quite wanted to like this one but I don’t think I saw it at its best.

Official site of The Mayflower - www.mayfloweroldleigh.co.uk

Official site of The Mayflower - www.mayfloweroldleigh.co.uk

A room tucked away behind the presumably more touristy ice cream parlour, it has maodern wood finishes & there are four real ales. The views from the window are mainly of the yard area, but you can see the Thames if you look carefully. Seem to have imported the staff from Wetherspoons - milling around doing anything but serving, but its a nice enough place on the cobbled high street.