The Lyndhurst, Reading

Official site of The Lyndhurst - www.thelyndhurstreading.co.uk

Official site of The Lyndhurst - www.thelyndhurstreading.co.uk

This is a good-sized pub and kitchen in a striking but neglected looking building on the fringes of the town centre. The peeling paintwork and cracked window panes didn’t make this feel like a vary appealing prospect on approach, but once inside, things aren’t anywhere near so bad, perhaps only really suffering from a load of very outdated fixtures and fittings. The pub has a single room interior in a shallow but wide layout, with scuffed floorboards through the main part of the room and a quarry stone floor to the far left and around the servery. A mix of pew and chair seating runs down the front wall, beneath a row of windows that look out to a busy junction. Elsewhere, a few small tables and chairs can be found nearer the bar, each arranged between a row of support pillars, whilst there are high tables and stools to the right and two leather sofas beneath a large mirror at the far left end of the room. The servery occupies much of the back wall and has a wood panelled counter front with a nice rectangular framing pattern along its length. Someone has started to paint pictures of cocktails in these ‘frames’, but seemingly lost their enthusiasm for the project after painting the first three, leaving five of the frames empty. A bare brick and mirrored bar back beneath a rather clunky looking gantry round things out here and there are boards all around the room promoting food offers and other such deals. Décor throughout is surprisingly limited, although I did notice one very nice partitioning screen with the pub’s name etched in the glasswork – a totally redundant feature in a room that has been opened out so much, but still a nice feature nonetheless. A great, nostalgic Britpop soundtrack was playing and this, combined with the pub’s dated look, made me feel like I was in one of my old student haunts from the late 90’s. I was greeted by a very friendly barman who had a good chat whilst pouring me a decent drop of West Berkshire Good Old Boy – one of two cask ales available alongside Black Sheep Pale, with a third hand pump unclipped. There were very few other customers in on a Saturday afternoon – one couple sat near the entrance, and four girlfriends having lunch opposite the bar – so things felt pretty flat which wasn’t helped by the large open space. This place really could do with a bit of loving to get it up to scratch and make you want to return. There are a few promising signs, such as the decent beer and friendly service, but first time visitors aren’t likely to be impressed with the dated interior, assuming they made it inside and weren’t put of by the crumbling façade. I’m glad I popped in and quite enjoyed my time here, but have no interest in returning when there are plenty more pubs around town doing all this much better.