Royal Oak, Bulwell, Nottingham

The Royal Oak is a pub on the main strip of shops in the centre of Bullwell. It is a former Home Ales Pub and has a very shady reputation. In recent weeks however much like many of Punch taverns pubs that Greene King Have taken over the Royal Oak has had a sizable investment spent on renovating it so my review is post renovation. The same layout remains with the bar room running parallel to the entrance with three separate rooms off from this, A large lounge behind, a small room with comfy bench seating and a pool room at the back with more bench seating. The decor is that of a classic town boozer but the investment has meant all the curtains carpets and seat covers have all been refreshed and the outside had been spruced up with new signage and Greene King logos. However unlike the other Greene king pubs that have had a refurbishment this pub is still completely real ale free with only the blandest of keg beers available. I had a pint of Chestnut mild for £2.60 and this was an ok drink although they only had Stella glasses or plastic pint glasses, what’s all that about? The pub was pretty empty on my visit and we sat in the smaller room and supped our beers. I can imagine on weekends and evenings there are like in most Bullwell pubs a fair amount of undesirable customers. This along with the horseshoe has the most traditional pub feel of Bullwell’s pubs but unfortunately this is not enough to salvage it and I won’t be returning in a hurry.

Official site of Royal Oak - www.johnbarras.com

Official site of Royal Oak - www.johnbarras.com

The Royal Oak is on a pedestrianised shopping street in the middle of bulwell. This is a smallish town pub that was fairly basic inside,there were two rooms with a lounge and a very basic bar, i usually had a drink in the bar. This pub used to be an Home Ales tied house and there were two real ales on the bar the Home bitter was a very nice drink the other beer was Home mild. I think this pub is still open but i doubt there are any real ales on here. Pub first visited 6/8/1982 Photo taken December 1988