Royal Oak, Hucclecote, Gloucester

Official site of Royal Oak - www.hungryhorse.co.uk

Official site of Royal Oak - www.hungryhorse.co.uk

A fairly nondescript looking brick built pub on the main Hucclecote Road, it is part of Greene King’s “Hungry Horse” chain, and thus you pretty much know what to expect before you get in the door. And it’s not going to be anything very exciting. It’s a good size internally, and configured in a U-shape around the bar counter. Décor wise it’s the usual corporate and generic mix of patterned carpet and a multitude of vibrant colours on the walls, which on this occasion included a deep red, cream and turquoise. There was some reasonably smart grey slate style tiling around the bar and a few large pictures of Gloucester’s cathedral on the walls, but little else of any note. What might be described as the public bar is around to the right and this included a pool table, darts board and no less than four plasma screens showing a football match as well as a projector screen, although this was rolled up out of sight on my visit. Unfortunately the televised sport was difficult to escape, with a couple more large screens in the main part of the pub and even small screens inset in to the walls at the end of the tables in the smaller leg of the U. Seating is a mixture of padded benches and regular chairs, and there were a number of fruit machines dotted around. Despite five hand pumps on the bar, many were doubled up and consequently the beer choice consisted of a rather uninspiring Hardy & Hanson’s Bitter, Old Golden Hen and Greene King IPA. Ciders fared fractionally better with Thatcher’s Gold, Strongbow and Strongbow Dark Fruit. Whilst there’s nothing really wrong with this pub, ultimately I can see little reason to visit here unless you perhaps live in the area and can’t be bothered to go anywhere more interesting.