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The Ounce & Ivy Bush (JD Wetherspoon), East Grinstead

Pub added by elizabeth mcgraw
The Atrium, Little King Street
East Grinstead
RH19 3DJ
Phone: 01342335130

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Pub Type

J D Wetherspoon

Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Pub SignMan left this review about The Ounce & Ivy Bush (JD Wetherspoon)

This is a modern Wetherspoons located inside an ugly steel and glass building just off the main drag through the centre of town. The main entrance was closed when I visited, presumably for Covid-related reasons, with customers left to try and figure out that a second entrance can be found a short way down Little King Street, betrayed only by the presence of a couple of smokers. Inside, you find yourself in a large, mainly open-plan room reminiscent of a typical ‘90’s drinking barn, carpeted for the most part and with a few pillars and other such bits of partitioning offering scant privacy mainly in the areas around the perimeter of the room. The side entrance takes you directly into a very large seating area with the servery a distant sight at the far end of the room. Plenty of mixed seating options are available across this space, with some nice banquette booths over to the left under a set of bookcases, three rows of regular tables and chairs through the centre with high tables and stools opposite the bar and a bare boarded raised area over to the right with a few more standard tables and chairs under some pretty grim looking paintings. The bar runs along the mid-part of the back wall and has a cheap looking counter with back-lit frontage and an almost completely plain white wall bar back. There is a bit of tongue and groove panelling along part of the rear wall, whilst the rest of the room has been painted in uninspiring neutral shades. Several TV screens were showing subtitled rolling news channels and there was a very small number of punters in – by far the fewest I’ve seen in any post-lockdown ‘Spoons. Perhaps as a result of this, the pub was also short-handed behind the bar, leading to a long wait for the hard-working lone server to get around to taking my order and another long wait for it to then be brought over to my table.
The ale range also looked like it was being managed in accordance with low turnout, with just two ‘Spoons regulars and one guest ale on the two banks of handpulls. Thankfully the guest ale was a well-kept Oakham JHB which I enjoyed very much once it finally arrived.
I found this a pretty drab and uninteresting ‘Spoons with very little to recommend about it. The staff were friendly enough but clearly overworked and the sloe guest ale was very nice, but this fell short on pretty much every other front and highlighted the shortcomings of this chain under the new Covid regulations – perhaps I would have had a very different impression had I visited prior to the pandemic, but the plain, open-plan interior, dull décor and lifeless chain bar atmosphere suggest I probably wouldn’t have.

On 11th November 2020 - rating: 4
[User has posted 3102 recommendations about 3102 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Aqualung . left this review about The Ounce & Ivy Bush (JD Wetherspoon)

As noted below this is a retail unit in a modern cinema complex so as a building is very dull. There is a raised area on the right which is about as interesting as it gets. The bar has two sets of five hand pumps one with the usual GK IPA & Abbot, a cider, Doom Bore and Adnam's Broadside. The other five had Langham's Halfway To Heaven, Abbot (again), Brain's SA, Hambledon Nightmare and Evan Evans Golden Hop. I went for the Langham beer (£2.50) which was in reasonably good nick. This is GBG 2015 listed but I'm not sure why on the basis of my Saturday morning visit. I thought it was a fairly below par Spoons.

On 21st June 2015 - rating: 5
[User has posted 2143 recommendations about 2143 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


john mcgraw left this review about The Ounce & Ivy Bush (JD Wetherspoon)

Although this is a pub with a fairly modern feel there was a good range of guest beers on with the Long Man Long blonde being very good. The staff were very friendly and efficient and seemed to have a good knowledge of real ales. Unfortunately I was too early for the mini Oakham fest that was coming up.

On 29th January 2015 - rating: 7
[User has posted 2044 recommendations about 2025 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Ounce & Ivy Bush (JD Wetherspoon)

Part of a modern building forming a small entertainment complex, which you can reach either via the building's main entrance or through an inconspicuous side door. Nearly all the exterior signage just says Wetherspoons rather than Ounce & Ivy Bush. Particularly anonymous furniture and decor. Ten handpumps on the bar counter, but three of these had the dreaded 'available soon' badges, with the local Westerham BB and Marstons seasonal Sweet Chariot (£2.40) being of much interest. Overall, rather dull.

On 13th February 2013 - rating: 5
[User has posted 8066 recommendations about 8066 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Roger Button left this review about The Ounce & Ivy Bush (JD Wetherspoon)

A Wetherspoons housed in the ground floor of a modern cinema complex isn't the most endearing image and to be honest, this isn't one of the chains more appealing branches. The pub name is one of the more interesting aspects, an Ounce apparently being a Wild Cat and and the Ivy Bush being the symbol of (don't laugh at this point) a high class Inn. Throw in a few bits about an old pub and the Sackville Coat of Arms and you get probably the most convoluted pub name in the country. Who said a trip to Wetherspoons wasn't educational! The interior feels very closed in and a mass of ugly air conditioning pipes hovering below the lowish ceilings hardly adds to the aesthetics. Despite having areas of raised seating and lounge bits in from of bookcases it all feels very open and lacking any intimacy. The only draw is the usual run of beers, ales and food which are all trademark Wetherspoons but the lack of ambience and such dull surroundings probably aren't enough to warrant any second visits from me in the near future.

On 19th September 2009 - rating: 4
[User has posted 1239 recommendations about 1233 pubs]