The Compass, Bromley

The Compass is a decent looking pub that is in the middle of town. Once inside there is a single L shaped room,there are tall tables and chairs to the front right,the left side is up one step,there is comfy bench seating and normal tables and chairs here,the room is part bare boarded and carpeted. There were three real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Sharps High Flyer which was a nice drink,the other beers were London Pride and Old Speckled Hen. Background music was playing. This is a proper drinkers pub. Pub visited 14/2/2015

This town centre pub has suffered from having a dubious reputation and I have always tended to walk past as a cursory glance through the window has never revealed anything looking like an ale pump. As I found myself recently walking past and with time to kill I thought I’d give it a try if only to tick it off. The interior has a central bar with bare floors and a section to the right containing a pool table. A carpeted extended area down the left appears to be a couple of knocked through rooms. The décor is very much pub by numbers, presentable enough without much that stands out other than a few old pictures of the Town Centre mixed in with various promotional posters. There were a couple of TV’s that I would expect are aimed mainly at the sporting end of the customer base. At the rear is an outdoor covered smoking area. The pub was fairly quiet for my visit and I didn’t sense anything of the pub’s dubious reputation, in fact the (I presume) landlady was quite welcoming and chatty. In the absence of any obvious ale I ordered a Guiness before noting a display of Cask Marque bumph and wondering if I’d missed one of these new fangled hand pumps that is cunningly disguised as a keg beer engine. Nope, deffo no ales here. As I walked to the rear bar section I chanced across 3 isolated and well tucked away hand pumps badged with Adnams Gunhill, Adnams Ghost Ship and Westrhams Freedon Ale (albeit with a “coming soon” label). Why oh why are these not more visible or obvious! A chat to the landlady revealed that she is planning to put on Adnams Lighthouse as a regular at £2.10 a pint. In short, this wasn’t the hellhole that has been depicted elsewhere and now I know of the secret ale stash, I would certainly pop in again as it is one of the few traditional style boozers left in the town centre although I wouldn’t go out of the way for it.