The Club Bar, Newbury

Facebook page of The Club Bar - www.facebook.com

Official site of The Club Bar - theclubbarandlounge.co.uk

Facebook page of The Club Bar - www.facebook.com

Official site of The Club Bar - theclubbarandlounge.co.uk

The Club Bar is a huge laminate floored venue with an entrance that leads to a front bar with a pool table and dartboard to the left and a larger sparsely furnished rear bar behind, both separated by a central bar with front and rear serving counters. Standard and premium keg products are available and the two hand pumps on each counter were drawing West Berks Brewery’s Good Old Boy and Arkell’s Wiltshire Gold during a recent Tuesday evening visit. The West Berks was drinkable, but I think it may have been in the pipe for a while because the only other customer was on lager. There are televisions in both bars for airing Sky Sports, all of which were muted while some background music played. On the way to the toilets at the rear I passed a closed snooker room and a separate pool and dart room, which confirmed to me that this place used to be some sort of social club that has now been opened up to the public. The young staff were very friendly and made me feel welcome, but it still has a social club feel so I’m not sure I’d revisit.

The old Con Club on the site has been gutted and opened-up to the public. It’s absolutely huge and feels like a non-league football team’s clubhouse. Some odd thematic touches like the blue and yellow chairs and wood block flooring, offset by blueish grey walls. Friendly staff and a general smell of ‘new’. Two cask available, Doom Bar and Wadworth Henrys IPA, a half of the latter clearly being first one out for a long while (NBSS 2). It’s the closest pub to the station, at least.