The Coach & Horses, Carshalton

This is a fairly popular and enjoyable traditional pub on the main High Street through Carshalton. The pleasant, U-shaped room has a selection of seating arranged around the exterior walls and provides plenty of visual stimulation in the form of a large variety of clocks on all walls and a beer bottle collection on some high shelves. The bar promised much, with three painted hand pumps, but only London Pride was being served, with what looked like an Adnams clip turned around. The Pride was perfectly drinkable and was served by a cheery enough barmaid. There was a bit of live music on when I popped in on a recent Friday evening although the punters didn't seem to be paying too much attention to it. A pretty decent pub all things considered and if there had been a better ale selection I can imagine I would have stayed longer. Worthy of investigation.

A traditional style corner pub with fine green tiled exterior and a comfortable enough single room interior. I can't really speak for any local misgivings as it was a fairly quiet lunchtime visit but I certainly didn't get any feelings of intimidation or unfriendliness. The interior has a certain charm with patterned diamond lattice windows, pint pots hanging from the ceiling, bottles and plates around the walls, old historical snippets and a large collection of clocks. 2 reasonably priced (for Surrey) ales (Adnams and Rev James) as well as 4 unusual ciders (2 on hand pump, 2 poured direct from barrels behind the bar). No realcomplaints about quality from my entourage. Regular bingo and quiz nights and a weekly darts discount (pick a number from a hat, throw a single dart and if you hit that number you get the drink for a quid - well it's certainly different!). To the rear is a small patio garden which is probably only of interest to smokers and gnome enthusiasts. Overall I found it an above average and slightly quirky place, a decent enough stop on a local pub crawl (as we were) but it does have some quite healthy competition in the neighbourhood.