The Railway (JD Wetherspoon), Gillingham

The UK's newest JDW is an original pub that was opened in 1901 as the Railway Hotel so may be both Victorian as well as Edwardian! An early photograph on the front of the menus show that it was a Style & Winch house, a Maidstone brewery that was taken over by Barclay Perkins in 1929 so in the days of the big six breweries it would have been a Courage pub and this is confirmed by the older photos. My Kent guide from the 1990s show it as selling Whitbread Boddington's Bitter. Whatever the past may have been it is now a greatly modernised open plan rectangular room with typical JDW fixtures and fittings. The only sign of any originality are the leaded upper windows on the Station Road side. It struck me as being a typical JDW where the previous building could have been just about anything. The clientele was fairly typical with a mix of young and old, families with rampaging or orderly offspring plus earlier a few shouty groups of males probably off to some sporting event. There was no obvious sign of a daytime drinking brigade apart from myself. The long bar on the left had twelve hand pumps with the JDW Trio Of Doom doubled but six Kent beers which were Hopdaemon Incubus & Skrimshander IPA, Westerham British Bulldog, Family Stout & Audit Ale and Whitstable Winkle Picker. These were all £1.99 so good value whereas the food prices were slightly more expensive than average but not outrageously so. Sadly the Audit Ale was at the end of the cask and not entirely clear but the Family Stout was excellent. One of the chill cabinets was devoted to ciders, both bottles and six glass jars with taps that presumably had been filled from the usual boxes with a plastic container within. This is so much better than the boxes, especially when the plastic inner container has to be removed and it looks like a gross scene from Casualty or Holby City. I spent several hours here as my left knee was giving me aggravation and it started to rain. Overall I quite liked it but earlier in the day there were too few staff on the floor although I didn't have to wait long to get served at any time. It's a typical JDW so if you don't like them you won't like this one but for me it was above average. It gets a strong 7.

Official site of The Railway (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Railway (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Due to open as a Spoons in September.

Funnily enough the Railway is located literally a stone’s throw away from Rainham railway station. There are two bars and although I had a look through to the left hand bar that had a single gentleman sitting in it I didn’t enter. It looked pretty quiet and the sort of place I would read a newspaper if I was old and bored. The right hand bar was also quiet early on the recent Thursday evening I visited, but there was some conversation between the barmaid and couple of locals who were watching muted snooker on the plasma screen. This was via terrestrial television and I didn’t see any advertisements for Sky Sports. There is a jukebox that played a random song every now and again at a volume that was far too loud for the setting and at the rear is a pool table and a dartboard. The hand pump was drawing Doom Bar and there was a standard draught selection alongside San Miguel. This pub is handy for a quick pint if waiting for a train, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit here again.

A station hotel from the golden age of the railways, The Railway consists of a large corner pub with two bars, one of which isn't always open. There is a pool table, gaming machines and a large, friendly pub dog. A fading carpet and repro fireplace add to the poor interior. The decor is decaying, and there is a pervading undertone of urine in the air. That said, the staff were very welcoming, although the locals were not. The pub has shed its former low-life customers, so has improved from that perspective in recent years - unruly yobs are now firmly ejected, and although familes are welcome, it is made clear that children must leave by 6pm. There was only one ale on draft, Bombardier, which was far from perfect but still just about drinkable. There is, however, a good selection of bottled beers available. OK to break a journey, but it wouldn't be my first choice in Rainham especially as there are 2 GBG pubs close by.