Halfway Inn, Sutton

Don't be put off by the 'wine bar' tag, this is by far the best pub in Cheam. Good ambience, friendly (& beer-friendly) guv'nor, three good beers on tap - Masterbrew & Hepworth Iron Horse (4.8% strong pale ale) were in excellent form on Saturday. Sport TV not intrusive with low/no volume.

This is a high street shop conversion pub, which I think is somewhat mis-named as a wine bar. I normally avoid wine bars as they don’t tend to do real ale, and although I guess this one probably does serve wine, the provision of real ale is clearly a major factor. They had on Shepherd Neame Masterbrew, plus three less regularly seen ales in Purbeck IPA, Upham Stakes Ale, and Palmers Copper Ale. The Stakes Ale and Copper Ale were sampled and both found to be in good nick. I’ve no idea about food availability as we were in late on a Tuesday evening, when any pub kitchen would have closed. There’s a pine clad bar counter, plus gantry, on the left, opening out to a larger seating area at the back. It’s a bit 70s retro here at the back, with some booths separated by chunky glazed and panelled screens. There were no sofas, coffee tables, tall tables and tall stools which is a definite plus. Just inside the front door there is a metal spiral staircase, presumably leading up to some additional seating, but for some reason I declined the opportunity to ascend to a higher level. A fair bit of decor adorned the walls, such as old prints, playing cards, brewery mirrors and the like. It seemed to me that they had gone to some effort to make a shop conversion look like a more traditional pub, which is something of a challenge, but here they have succeeded to a large extent. Don’t be put off by the name – this really is a pub, and one to which I’m bound to pay a return visit at some stage.

This is a larger slightly more plush version of its sister pub in Addiscombe. However there are not as many ales available but with four on durinfg our visit this is still a pretty good choice. We had the Shaps Abbey Christmas whcih was well kept

A long narrow shop conversion which widens out a little at the rear beyond the bar with a small raised area. A rooflight gives much needed natural light back here. Accurately described by Pub Signman below. Don't be misled by the name or the outside appearance, there is good well kept beer on offer inside. Shepherd Neame Masterbrew, Hepworth Pullman, Palmers Copper ale and Dorset Gold. I had the Dorset Gold which was a good pint all the more so for being £2.50. A fair few beermats on the pillars plus in a couple of frames indicate a changing range of beers. Certainly not a traditional pub but I liked it here and would visit again.