The Kings Head, Guildford

The Kings Head is a decent looking pub that is close to Guildford Castle. Once inside there is a T shaped room with the front area being bare boarded,the seating here is pew seats and chairs and one tall table with stools,the bar is midway down the room on the left side,there is a pool table on the left side,the rear area is up two steps and is carpeted,there is normal tables and chairs and some tall tables and chairs here. The pub had a good choice of Shepherd Neame real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Shepherd Neame Whitstable Bay,which was a very nice drink,the other real ales were Shepherd Neame Red IPA,Spitfire,GK St Edmunds and Doom Bar. I thought this was a decent pub to have a drink in while on my Guildford pub crawl. Pub visited 13/5/2017

Just around the corner from Guildford Castle, this is a Grade II listed pub that dates back to the late 16th Century. The pub has a single room interior, but the use of split level and the positioning of the bar midway down the left hand wall, means that there are three distinctly different areas within. You enter to a bare boarded front room with lots of lovely old dark wood beams and a rather cosy feel. Standard tables and chairs mix with comfy lounge furniture, with most of the tables laid for diners. There is a large inglenook fireplace to the right and some excellent local photos have been blown up and displayed along the end wall. A step takes you up to the quarry stone floored bar area with a dark wood servery to the left and limited high stool seating opposite, plus some framed medals (military?) hung along one of the ceiling beams. More seating can be found in a raised space to the rear right, where more of the tables had been formally laid, whilst to the left, a screen helps obscure a rather quaint snug which had a lot of old paintings, photos, cigarette cards and the like on the walls. A door to the rear leads out to a fine paved garden with lots of benches on the large lower level, flanked by enamel beer adverts and overseen by a life sized knight who stands on the top of the rear wall. Steps to the front take you up to a small terrace with a mix of high stools, metal garden furniture and more benches, again with some old adverts lining the perimeter walls. Menus listed pizza, burger and pub classic options, although a board inside stated that these were on offer at different days of the week. The pub appears in the 2016 Good Beer Guide and accordingly there were five ales available at the bar - Robinsons Trooper and Dizzy Blonde, Hog's Back TEA, Wychwood Hobgoblin and Shepherd Neame Whitstable Bay. A friendly barmaid poured me a lively, but ultimately rather good pint of the Dizzy Blonde which I enjoyed in the garden, soaking up the last of the sun's rays. I felt this pub had tried to simultaneously pitch itself to traditionalists and a younger crowd, with compromises made at either end of the spectrum. The pub has been opened out a lot but it retains a traditional charm thanks to the dark wood beams, fireplace and snug, whilst the garden and late opening (2:30am on weekends) will draw a younger crowd looking for something different to the usual drinking barns. I thought that this worked quite well overall and was very content enjoying a good pint in comfortable surrounds.

Service is occasionally sloppy lately but forgiven for the staff being generous about it. Overall in my top 3 pubs of Guildford.