The Banbury Cross, Banbury

The Charles Wells pubsign may give you pause for thought,but don't worry as their ale doesn't appear here,it's a real ale freezone.You enter in a side door with a front section with mainly high tables infront of the curved frontage,a small servery access ,a modern darts board and scoring machine obscured by tables with comfy chairs and two flatscreens,thankfully off on my Saturday evening visit. The bar is ahead with just multinational keg crap (Stella £5.20) ,more traditional seating,some benches before a rear section with a pool table.Music is a theme here with lots of prints and posters of various artists and live music in a building off the rear courtyard.The pub attracts circuit drinkers at the weekends and descrete door men keep an eye on proceedings. An old building with a low ceiling it could be so much better but in it's current guise I can see no reason to visit again.

Official site of The Banbury Cross - www.banburycrosspub.co.uk

Official site of The Banbury Cross - www.banburycrosspub.co.uk

Obviously quite an old building, and although refurbished at some stage in the distant past it remains a pretty basic boozer (with furniture, decor and customers to match, if this visit is anything to go by). Pool table at one end, dartboard at the other, a few sports TVs in between. Just Bombardier (£3.70) from the brace of handpumps.

What a good pub this could be with its location, a side entrance and good looks although with a more than slightly rubbished interior. All open plan, the remains of a cosy bay windowed front snug are there sadly with a coffee only counter and some tatty tables and chairs, plus a couple of settles. The middle has the counter with four pulls - only a miserable Directors on plus the usual forlorn blue and black clipped keg tosh. The final area at the back houses a pool table and some pond life. Various screens showing sport, a machine or two and noise sometimes referred to as music. I won't bother again.

The dreaded pub to let sign on the building called in it was poor the place wanted a good clean the big beer garden to the rear was a mess its the same old story the poor landlords going under will have lost all his money but there will be another one round the corner full of dreams and believing the bullshit the brewers tell him