Jack & Jill, Coulsdon

This is a classic 1950’s/60’s estate pub at the top end of the Clockhouse estate to the North West of Coulsdon. You enter via the car park, into a spacious main bar with the servery directly opposite on the back wall. Banquette and standard seating runs around the perimeter of the room, with the banquettes looking and feeling quite smart and comfortable – perhaps the result of a recent refit? The whole room is carpeted and has a dark patterned ceiling which contrasts nicely with the cream walls and makes the room surprisingly aesthetically pleasing. The servery has a tongue and groove counter and relatively simple bar back, whilst the front wall has a series of dark wood partitioning screens with modern frosted glass panes, each with a collection of bottles, glasses, jugs etc… on top, helping to break the large room up a bit. A pool table dominates the right hand end of the room and various old pictures and modern photo montages add some much needed colour to the walls. A jukebox can be found close to the bar and there were a couple of TV screens on showing a repeat of one of the weekend’s Premier League fixtures. Football credentials are further enhanced by a mix of Crystal Palace and Chelsea flags on the bar back and England flags on the ceiling. There is a smaller bar through a door to the left, with its own servery and what appeared to be a good deal of additional seating, but the room was empty on my visit, so I didn’t explore further. Against all expectations, I received a very friendly welcome from the landlord and the regulars seemed fairly relaxed in the main. I was also not expecting to find any ale here, but a solitary hand pump was dispensing Fullers London Pride and, having decided to risk a pint, I was further surprised to find it was in pretty good nick. This pub isn’t particularly easy to get to and I wouldn’t really recommend anyone to go out of their way for a visit, but I quite enjoyed my time here and thought the pub clearly served its loyal band of locals very well. As estate pubs go, it’s a pretty good example and was almost worth the long uphill slog to get here.