The Lamb, Surbiton

This is a rather quirky single room pub on a busy road in a building that apparently was previously divided into four separate bars back in the day, but now has a C-shaped room with a clear distinction between the former front and back sections. The room is bare boarded and has white walls and a curved tongue and groove servery. The front section has a few standard tables and chairs under the windows, whose sills are filled with oddities such as old cameras, a coffee maker, vases, pots, pictures and so on. To the right there is a strange sparkling light feature next to a series of mounted gauges, pipes, dials and the like, the purpose of which was not apparent. There are no handpulls on the front section of the bar, but it had instead been stacked with plenty of bar snacks. The rear half of the room has bench, chair and sofa seating options plus a tiny stage in the rear left corner, with a band arriving whilst I was there, who annoyingly started setting some of their equipment up on my table. Decor here is similarly eclectic, including a large dragon's head, potted plants, a didgeridoo, sewing machine, glitter ball, lamb portrait and numerous posters and familiar art works including Hokusai's Great Wave and the famous shot from Georges Melies' A Trip to the Moon, where the rocket capsule lands in the eye of the Moon. It's all a bit kitsch and chaotic, and the quirkiness factor was ramped up when a tabletop pinball competition broke out between the bar staff during the brief period that I was the only customer in the pub. There's a decent sized beer garden to the rear with sofas, picnic benches and sturdy iron garden furniture and an effort had been made to provide some shelter, although the plastic awning used for this looked pretty shabby and it wasn't the most enticing garden I've come across. Reggae and indie music seemed to be the order of the day and I failed to spot any TV screens, although I did note a collection of board games. On the bar there was Oakham The Navigation, Surrey Hills Ranmore, Hop Back Summer Lightning and Brains SA which went off and was replaced with Oakham Scarlet Macaw. A pint of the Ranmore set me back £3.90 and it was arguably the best pint of Ranmore I've ever had, so I enjoyed taking my time over it. The staff were all very nice, offering friendly greetings and farewells to everyone and helping a chap find another local pub doing food after he arrived to find they'd stopped serving here. This is a strange pub which seems to be going for that quirky, junk-shop look which I think can work quite well, but it falls a little short and is conflicted by also trying to be a live music venue. I thought it was a cosy enough spot to enjoy a well kept pint and wouldn't mind spending an evening here, but I can also appreciate that it's not the sort of place that will appeal to everyone.

Eclecticly furnished,messy,scruffy with a cluttered outside spaced.Like drinking in the furniture section of a car boot sale.Rthe bar reminds me of the Wenlock before they cleaned it up.Busy garden area.Its a music pub so they had to have Trooper,Summer lightning,Tiger and Surrey hills were also on.Wishy washy Ranmore was tried.I hate pubs like this but each to their own.

This is an old fashioned GBG (2014) listed boozer diagonally opposite the Young's Black Lion. I arrived here just after midday to find it quiet. It's a small single room with an island bar and bare floorboards. There are a an assortment of chairs and tables plus a couple of sofas. There are four handpumps with the Surrey Hills Ranmore Ale as a permanent fixture and on this occasion Dark Star Hophead, Robinson's Trooper and Hop Back Winter Lightning. I went for the Trooper (£3.70) which I had only had before in bottles from Morrison's. It tasted bland to me although it appeared to be in fine condition. This struck me as expensive for the edge of Greater London as I have paid less in Central London pubs. If the previous pub I had been in had stocked this beer it would have cost just £2.20 so the question is whether it's worth paying an extra thirty bob a pint to drink in here? For me the answer is no.