The Two Sawyers, Gillingham

There has been a pub of this name in the site since 1706, although the original building was destroyed by a massive fire in 1902. The current structure is Edwardian, and it opened again in around 1906. It's an archetypal garrison town boozer, sometimes rough, sometimes tacky, but never boring. The main bar has a sticky, worn carpet, SKy sports and there a dias/booth for a DJ. There is a smaller games room to the side with a pool table and gaming machines. There are very few horizontal surfaces (other than the floor and ceiling, of course) apart from 2 small tables which leaves lots of room for drinkers to stand, move and fall over. There was no real ale, so I reverted to Newcastle Brown in a bottle, The staff were very friendly, the locals very cliquey and there were a couple of very drunk squaddies to complete the picture. A great place for its target audience, one of whom I am not.

The Two Sawyers was closed the first couple of times I walked past, but late on Monday afternoon I found the doors ajar so I ventured in. It was Halloween so the pub was decked out with cobwebs and ghoulish pictures as the manager gave out Halloween themed promotional t-shirts to the handful of locals who had congregated in the left hand bar. This bar has a DJ booth and a plasma screen that must be used to show the advertised Sky Sports. I decided to drink my pint in the empty right hand bar where there is a pool table, jukebox and a couple of gaming machines. Some deals are available on double spirits and I didn’t spot any advertised food, which wasn’t surprising. The toilet wasn’t the greatest I’ve seen and the hand drier was missing its plastic covering. I saw nothing in this pub that would have me rushing back and its two Brompton peers around the corner are far superior.

A lovely pub! great friendly atmosphere. Thursday nights karaoke is brill!! drinks prices are reasonable, good selection and offers on drinks!!

Very basic pub, with a tatty interior and a limited amount of furniture. About the only feature worth mentioning is the pool table, but its the sort of place where one might imagine that the cues end up being used for other purposes. No real ale, of course, so it was a very quick pint of John Smiths Smooth and I was off...