The Bell, East Molesey

The Bell page on the Greene King website - www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk

The Bell page on the Greene King website - www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk

A nice pub hidden away down a residential back street, obviously the same as described in Blackthorns review which was a couple of weeks before my visit. I probably turned up at the wrong time , early on a Saturday evening with live football just started and the place was rammed,maybe because of this I didn't notice any of the bland corporate feel described below.I had a pint of Otter Amber which was in good shape if not overly interesting. I liked the pub but must give it a go at a quieter time.

An attractive looking pub located in a quite back street near the church, buts nonetheless just a couple of minutes’ walk from the main road, it has quite an “olde worlde” appearance with various rather wonky bits of the building jutting out an odd angles. It was then something of a disappointment to get inside and find it much more contemporary than I expected, having clearly undergone a very unsympathetic “refurbishment” at some point. It’s been divided up in to a number of different rooms internally and is now something of a rabbit warren. The only original features remaining are a rather wonky ceiling and some very old supporting timberwork which must have been a great feature at one time when the rest of the pub would have been of a similar style. The flooring consisted of tiling by the bar and elsewhere the sort of generic patterned carpet that you find in countless pubs and in fact the whole place had a rather bland, corporate feel to it. Paintwork was predominantly a shade of green/grey, whilst a few old planks of timber had been fixed to the wall in places as well as some old black and white pictures of the local area, including the high street, river and the world’s largest grape vine at nearby Hampton Court. Several TV’s were showing a sports channel, although fortunately the volume was off so this was not too intrusive and there was also a darts board off to one side. A fireplace that was clearly disused had a pile of logs stacked up next to it for some reason which I can only assume was decorative. There were more beer pumps on the bar than might have been expected, although four were from Greene King with their Abbot Ale, Old Speckled Hen, IPA and Band of Brewer’s IPA. These were joined by Tribute and their own Bell Ale which was apparently brewed by the Twickenham Brewery. The solitary cider was Symonds Founders Reserve.

Official site of The Bell - www.bell-pub.co.uk

Official site of The Bell - www.bell-pub.co.uk

Known locally as "The Crooked House", The Bell is a large rambling pub with a low beamed ceiling, dark mustard/nicotine and red walls and subdued lighting. The interior is effectively now one space but the pub's layout is such that the different areas feel separated being joined as the are by archways and a narrow corridor link. Years ago the place would have been a warren of rooms, therefore providing a suitable hiding spot for the aforementioned highwayman, Claude Duval. Whether the pub's current appearance is as a result of alterations to the internal layout is difficult to tell, but no opportunity is lost to celebrate the mix of unlikely angles and leaning gables with framed information liberally displayed inside. Seating is mostly traditional, even rustic in areas, but there is the odd sofa. There a a few fireplaces including a large inglenook, and the clearly more recent bar has some stained glass along the gantry. There is a usable dartboard at one end, and a couple of fruit machines which seemed more intrusive than usual to me as their garish flashing displays stood out in the gloom of the interior. There are six handpumps on the bar, but there was only one on yesterday afternoon, and that was Courage Best. One was reverse clipped but the others had nothing. It seems reading other reviews that I was unlucky but this still seems to be a poor show in my opinion.