The Old House, Dorking

On West Street, in the middle of a street full of antiques shops, is The Old House at Home, a building that is believed to date back to the 14th century and which first became a pub in early Victorian times. The building is apparently two separate dwelling houses combined into one premises. It’s a Grade 2 listed timber framed building. A Sky Sports banner draped across the frontage perhaps prepares us for what is a dreadful interior, which although it features a low beamed ceiling and some brown wood panelling, has nothing else that looks original. Furniture consists of a mixture of high long tables and bar stools and, in one corner, by a fireplace, a couple of sofas. There isn’t one chair or table that I would classify as traditional pub furniture. There’s a number of TV’s strategically placed, a jukebox prominently situated by the entrance and a bare boarded floor that was one of the stickiest I can recollect coming across in ages. A notice on a blackboard by one of the TV’s proclaims that “last admission 11.30 pm , Friday and Saturday. ID required. Random searches may be carried out”. On the windows either side of the entrance, prominent A4 size notices tell us that the pub operates a zero tolerance drugs policy – for some unaccountable reason, I missed these on the way in, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone in. Despite being in a street full of antiques shops which seems to attract a steady flow of visitors, based on my visit, the pub is clearly not in the least bit interested in targeting this customer base, but instead making a play for the younger Friday / Saturday night Budweiser Bonehead crowd. It’s a Wells and Youngs pub which was offering Ordinary and Special on my recent Saturday lunchtime visit. I can’t imagine there’s much beer trade here at all, but the Special was reasonable, by the standards of that Bedford brew nowadays. When Youngs acquired this pub from Courage in 1989, we all thought it was an attractive and welcome addition to their tied estate. Nothing could be further from the truth now. Take my advice and give this one a miss – try The Kings Arms across the road instead, or alternatively, visit the CAMRA GBG listed offie next door, Cobbetts.

Youngs pub - asked for a pint of the 'ordinary' bitter but was served a pint of Special. Not sure which I was charged for, but it tasted fine anyway. Otherwise a reasonable-looking pub, quite quite a range of events being organised by the look of the notice board.

Usual Youngs pub. Sells real ale, Youngs but had run out of ordinary. Has weekly Karaoke. Drop in if you are passing.