The Sun, Carshalton

They had five real ales on during my visit – Landlord; Doom Bar; O’Hanlon’s Stormstay; North Yorkshire Brewery Honey Bunny; and Stonehenge Pigswill. Despite the discouraging name, I went for the Pigswill (£3.10 a pint) which was OK, but not overly good. I didn’t know this pub before the relatively recent refurbishment, so cannot make comparisons. But this is clearly an old pub judging by the exterior – indeed there appears to some of the original internal tiling (possibly even Victorian) in the now unused entranceway on the left. Inside, with the possible exception of the bar back, it is all stripped out and new. The floor is mainly bare-boarded with what looks like modern replacement boarding, except for a grey tiled area in front of the bar counter. Furnishings are a bit of a mixed bag – chunky solid wood tables, smaller round tables, normal chairs, stools, and padded benches with scatter cushions. Some of the walls are wood panelled up to the dado rail level and painted grey/green (as are the insides of the doors) and light yellow above that. On the plus side there is a separate family room at the back, which was serving its purpose during my visit with young kids consigned there, accompanied by their parents, working on their colouring book skills. Also, I saw no one-armed bandits, games machines or suchlike, although there was some rubbish pop music being played, but which improved dramatically when someone put on a Beatles CD. There were a few prints and suchlike on the walls, but it seemed more minimalist than most pubs. There were a few chalkboards on the walls, advertising the Tuesday quiz night, the seasonal food plus brunch on Sundays, and the “quesadilla with cheese, red onion and coriander s/w chicken or roast veg topped with sour cream & guacamole - £6.50”. Bit different from the usual pub grub. Essentially this is a fairly comfortable bar that has deliberately moved upmarket (vis the fruit bowl on the bar counter), but in the process abandoned any traditional pub character it might have had. But it does do some decent ales, was doing a decent trade on a Saturday afternoon, and I noticed a couple of tables reserved for the evening, so there is clearly a thriving market for this sort of place. But a traditional pub it isn’t.

Nice, clean, modern pub near to Carshalton train station. There was a good range of ales on offer when I ventured in last week. There were a couple of beers from the Wolf brewery, Sharp's Doom Bar, Rudgate Ruby Mild and an excellent RCH Old Slug Porter, as well as a decent selection of lagers including Hoegaarden and Leffe. There seems to be a strong emphasis on food here, and much of what was labelled the 'family area', plus the area around the fire was full of diners, but I didn't feel out of place sitting at the front of the pub with a few beers. The staff seemed pretty friendly and I got the impression that they are working hard to attract and keep new customers. There was also a very friendly and well behaved pub dog doing its best to charm everyone. I really enjoyed my time in here and will head back again soon, maybe to try the food.