Clayton's, Marlow

Having waited for 16.00 opening, it was no great surprise to discover this is an evening, cocktail sort of bar with a relaxed feel, as befits the chosen music of the soul/funk variety. - fine if that is what you after. The bar is up a level, while to the rear is a fair-sized patio garden, partly canopied. A solitary handpump is hidden on the side of the bar, dispensing Brakspear Oxford Gold.

A very odd one is this, and in Marlow that’s saying something. You enter to nothing, a large room with few discernible clues to it being a pub. You need to head up the steps to another room which has the bar at its rear. Blue wood décor and a general upmarket air. Just Brakspear Oxford Gold on and drinking it was, as the saying goes, ‘like copulating in a canoe’. Two minor saving graces were the gratis table service from the friendly (and bored, us being the only customers) barmaid and the very nice rear patio garden with plenty of fauna. The local CAMRA description includes the line ‘garden parties are very common here’ which tells you all you need to know, I suppose.