Woking Railway Athletic Club, Woking

Much as Will Larter says, note the need to buzz in. Four pulls with a beer from Arkells and one from Palmers in nice condition. It is basic, the decor is high quality railway porn mainly Southern Railway in origin, it's bright and fairly friendly and in a town not exactly blessed with good pubs it's well worth a visit, and it's GBG 2016 listed. I had the Arkells from Swindon somewhat ironically in this SR bastion. Lots of pump clips behind the counter show the range they've had on. A small shelf on the bar back has the clips of the beers next on.

This hut-like building next to the railway embankment is quite possibly the ugliest pub on this site, and some would argue that in fact it's not really a pub, being a club for members and their guests. However, Camra members are also welcome on production of their membership card, and with Camra having well over 100,000 members I reckon that's a large enough potential client base to class it as a pub. To get in you have to press a button on the squawk box beside the door - that's the door at the side accessed through the overhang of the neighbouring office building - the end door seen from the street is a fire escape. Once inside it's quite basic but with a pleasant, friendly feel. There are four hand pumps on the bar, of which just two were on at the time of my visit, but this was a Tuesday night when Luton Town were here to play Woking, so a third beer had already been drunk dry by some of my Hatters mates before I even got here. The remaining beers were Tring Rocket Man, an excellent beer from one of my favourite breweries, and Whitstable Chinook, which I was told was also very good. At £2.50 a pint it's not surprising the beer goes quickly. There's a large space past the bar, which is presumably for live music and functions, and a pool table between the entrance and the bar, the only other items of interest being some very good quality railway photos on the walls. If we have to come to Woking again, this pub will at least be something to look forward to.