The Lincoln Arms, Dorking

As others have said, this is a standard station pub. It’s certainly not a destination pub, but when you’re at Dorking Station with nearly an hour to wait for your train this pub is a very welcome sight indeed. It still operates as a hotel, and is a large building as you would expect. The main entrance takes you into a corridor – the “lounge” bar is at the front on the left; there’s a meeting room on the right that is for hire; and a further large room is at the back; and a garden is at the back on the left. The room at the back is quite Spartan and contains a dartboard, as well as some basic furnishings. The room at the front is where we spent our visit, and is almost as Spartan as the back room. It contains a couple of pool tables, and is mainly furnished with tall tables and tall stools. I saw no features worthy of mention. However, their regular ales are Doom Bar, Surrey Hills Shere Drop (both off when we visited early Sunday evening) and Hogsback TEA, plus one guest ale. I guess we struck lucky as the guest ale was still on, and was a decent drop of Tillingbourne AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – what a great name for a beer!). I didn’t see any sign of food, but we were definitely too late for Sunday lunch. I wouldn’t rate this as a good pub, but it was most certainly handily placed when we needed a pub, and did a decent pint of Tillingbourne AONB. I will definitely visit this one again if I’m waiting for a train at Dorking.

A large impersonal pub on the station approach, a typical station pub I suppose. Two rooms either side of a central bar, the front room has a couple of pool tables, the rear a dartboard. Wooden flooring, mixed seating, the walls and ceilings have a large number of St George's Cross flags. An outdoor shingled garden has a few picnic benches. Live sports and film nights advertised. Three handpumps but two reversed, I couldn't see what they were, leaving one serving Shepherd Neame Spitfire. The pub served its purpose for me which was to kill 20 mins after missing a train but in all fairness I can't see any other reason why I'd pop in.