The Royal Standard of England, Beaconsfield

Pub SignMan left this review about The Royal Standard of England

This is a stunning old rural pub with a very large, multiple room interior, located in a small village to the North of Beaconsfield. You enter though the main front door to a brick floored corridor with unusual, barrel-style, curved wall panelling. To the left is a small side room with pew seating, whilst a second such room offering similar seating appears a little further back, also to the left. There are lots of dark ceiling beams throughout, whilst the timbers also cross various walls, painted mainly in cream or red. Stained glass windows, attractive old doors and a few beautifully carved pews with high backs add to the traditional feel of these spaces. The servery appears at the end of the corridor and has a great dark wood counter, broken by various decorative support posts along its length, and a fine matching bar back adorned with years worth of randomly accumulated bits and bobs including lots of tankards and a yard of ale at the far end. A front snug-like space can be found opposite, with a lit fireplace and a few more seats, including the inside of the barrel effect panelling seen from corridor, here formed into an impressive bench. To the right is a large dining room with a fine vaulted ceiling and lots of tables and chairs split across two levels, with a few sofas and armchairs thrown into the mix. A huge lit fireplace with a grand stone surround dominates the far wall and there are plenty of taxidermy animal heads on display plus some large tapestries, cushions, a model of a woman holding a lamp, shotguns, sabres, centurion helmets and much more. There's a great stained glass pane opposite the bar and lots of medieval tapestry style art in the side rooms. A final dining space to rear, wasn't explored on this visit and the general impression was that it would take a great many visits to properly explore all that this pub has to offer.
The plus points extend to the bar, where a good row of handpulls were dispensing Rebellion Roasted Nuts and IPA, Chiltern Beechwood Bitter and Pale Ale and Windsor & Eton Conqueror, with one pump out of action. Service was friendly and the food smelt amazing, although the place was pretty quiet on my Saturday morning visit.
I thought this was an outstanding pub with much to recommend. The farmhouse-style interior was a nice, rarely seen treat, whilst the vast dining room full of esoteric items could keep you entertained for hours. The beer range was solid too, making this a genuine destination pub and one I hope I'll make it back to some day.

Date of visit - 16th March 2024

On 4^th August 2024 - rating: 9
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