ReviewThis is a small blues themed bar with a compact, single L-shaped room layout and a ‘secret’ garden out the back. On entering, the servery is directly opposite you, although unusually there is a second bar round to the rear left which houses all of the handpumps, so no need to be too disappointed when confronted by the keg fonts on the main bar. The room has tile flooring and some reasonably attractive exposed brick walls, although the bar counter and bar back have both been painted in rather dull shades of grey that don’t really enhance the look of the place. Perhaps the pub’s most striking feature is the huge inglenook fireplace over on the left-hand wall, although this has been spoiled somewhat by the positioning of an enormous TV screen above. This screen was showing a sports channel and there were at least two more such large screen dotted around the room, although they remained off throughout my visit. Two tables fill much of the front part of the room – one with high stools that have plush looking padding and backrests, whilst the other is much larger and surrounded by many padded chairs. A few more seating options appear as you move past the bar down the left side of the room and presumably there’s even more seating in the small rear garden, but I didn’t get around to exploring. A general music theme dominates the décor, not notably fixated solely on blues, with a portrait of the eponymous BB King alongside a Ziggy Stardust poster, various tour flyers and miscellaneous photos of artists from down the years. The décor is also dominated to a degree by blackboards which list just about every product you can buy or event you can attend, which feels a bit overpowering and not all that aesthetically pleasing. Oddly, for a music themed bar, there was no music playing when I visited – just the sound from the TV at a pretty low volume, which I was only able to hear properly due to the fact that I sat under one of the speakers.
There were three beers from Oakham on the rear bar – JHB, Citra and Bishops Farewell – plus Fullers London Pride. I tried the Bishops Farewell, which was in excellent condition and just as tasty as I remembered from whenever I was last able to drink it, back some time prior to the pandemic. The barman who served me was friendly enough and popped over to see if I wanted another when he saw my glass was almost empty.
I have to wonder whether I caught this place at its best, as it felt like a fairly standard single room bar with no obvious music theme beyond a few bits on the walls, so I find it hard to work out whether this is normally the case or whether the evening’s low turnout meant they decided to just put the TV on instead. Either way, they keep some decent beer here, so it might be worth taking a look as part of a crawl, but I’m not sure there was enough here to warrant regular visits.
