The Jolly Knight, Rochester

More plainly decorated than I remember from before, with sparse furniture and a lack of atmosphere hardly helped by some dull sport on the large TV screens. Doom Bar, Olde Trip and St Edmunds (£3.50) available from five handpumps. Exited through the corridor linking it to Ye Arrow (which had the same ale selection on, and benefits from a patio beer garden where most of the customers were to be found on a hot summer's day).

Another contrived bar in the King's Head complex, The Jolly Knight consists of one bar with a large inglenook, a shabby carpet and a very artificial medieval theme. It's a high street bar dominated by oversized tv Screens showing sports matches. Some 16th Century features can be noticed through the modern plaster, but that doesn't make it an historic artifact. There were 3 ales on, I had Harveys and Hanson's Bitter which tasted as artificial as the bar feels. It's ok to drop in as part fo a crawl, but I don't think I could make it a regular haunt.

The Jolly Knight is a small single room High Street pub that had one other customer when I visited on a recent Monday evening. I didn’t see any Sky Sports advertisements, but the presence of three plasma screens in such a small bar suggests that football is shown. There was no football on during my visit and the plasma screens were all showing the Chase quiz program with very loud sound. A selection of standard draught was available from the bar and three of the five hand pumps were unused leaving Ruddles and Old Speckled Hen as the ale options. Well over a year ago on my last visit to Rochester this pub was packed and I had trouble getting to the bar. After this visit I was left wondering what the big attraction was as I saw nothing that would have me rushing back. As a note, the Jolly Knight is connected by a corridor to Ye Arrow which is found at the rear. They share the same toilets and the draught and cask ale options are exactly the same so I they probably also share a cellar.