The Malt Shovel, Horsham

Located on the busy through-road that circles the northern side of Horsham’s town centre, this is a decent sized pub that looks like it might once have been an important roadside hostelry. The current Covid restrictions meant that I was asked to sit outside on one of the many picnic benches that have been laid out in part of the car park, despite an almost total lack of punters inside. This restricted my efforts to explore the pub to a single trip to and from the gents, which revealed a pleasant, traditional looking interior with dark wood panelling, a nice servery to one side and plenty of comfortable-looking seating spread across a number of loosely demarcated areas. The room follows an approximate L-shape, with most of the tables and chairs or benches in the area to the side of the servery. The bar has a dark wood counter and traditional bar back with an impressive collection of bottles along a high shelf above. It’s a shame we weren’t allowed to sit inside, but the sun was out and the garden wasn’t the worse place to find yourself. The car park seating area only occupies half of the original parking space, so drivers can still find somewhere to pull up, whilst the seating extends through what I assume was the original patio garden area to the front and side of the pub. The barmaid who greeted me on arrival was very friendly and took all my contact details before sitting me at an appropriate table in the car park. She listed the full ale range which comprised Downlands Tripod and Best, Gun Extra Pale and Surrey Hills Shere Drop. I opted for a pint of the Tripod, which was the only beer I’d not tried previously, and thought it was in good shape and very drinkable after a long walk through the outskirts of the town to get here. This place struck me as a nice, welcoming pub with a traditional interior and well-kept beer that isn’t showing its best side due to the policy of seating customers outside – a policy I hope they have revised now that more autumnal weather has arrived. I think I would’ve been very happy drinking my pint in the smart, comfortable looking bar area, but I will just have to let the fact that I was unable to do so act as motivation to return here some other day.

The Malt Shovel is well known in the area for hosting live music at the weekend and on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month open mic sessions are also held. During my recent Saturday afternoon visit Six Nations rugby was the preferred entertainment as a handful of people watched the television in a right hand flagstone floored seating area. Bare boards run through the adjacent L shaped bar that was populated with some older inhabitants of Horsham. The bar supports a limited keg range and I counted eight hand pumps. One of these was off leaving Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, Robinsons’ Trooper, Surrey Hills Brewery’s Ranmore, Langham’s Best Bitter, Fullers’ HSB, Pilgrim Brewery’s Progress, and an offering from Havant Brewery. There was a strong smell of bacon in the Olive Branch pub that I visited before here so I was a little concerned when I started smelling bacon again. Thankfully my fears of an impending stroke were allayed when I saw that the friendly barmaid was eating bacon and cheese fries. These fries and other tasty sounding dishes are available from the ‘Soul Street kitchen’ which operates between the hours of midday and 19:00 in the week and midday and 17:00 at the weekend. All of the mains are priced under a tenner. Out the back are a few picnic tables and there is also a car park for diners and designated drivers. I liked it in here and would return if in the area.