White Horse, Barking

demolished & plans for 196 homes approved

There were two handpumps on the bar, both apparently unused. The only bitter available was the keg smoothflow version of GKIPA, plus of course the usual bogstandard lagers. There was no sign of any food on the Wednesday lunchtime I was in. This is an impressively large pub, but as usual quantity is no substitute for quality. There are three large rooms. The room on the left is carpeted, contains the dartboard, plus tables and chairs and lots of empty space. The panel effect on the walls looks relatively modern. There’s no TV in here though. Behind the central island servery is another large room with a grubby carpet, some booth seating and little else – except a TV on the wall. The room on the right is effectively a sports room as it contains two pool tables and essentially nothing else, although it does have some panelling on the walls that could be from an original inter-war fitting. There’s a bit of outside seating at the back. The radio blaring out through the speakers was not to my liking, but that’s just my opinion as I don’t like loud music in pubs. All things considered I don’t think that this pub has much going for it, although the barmaid was friendly and apologetic for taking so long to get my half of frothy IPA into a glass. But I suppose that the locals like this sort of pub, and if so good luck to them and I’m glad it’s still here for them to enjoy.