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Submitted on Sunday, 5^th September 2010
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The Running Horses, Dorking

Old London Road
Mickleham
Postal town: Dorking
RH5 6DU

Correct details

Served areas

Mickleham

Tweets by The Running Horses

The Running Horses Thank you to @newsmolevalley for the lovely review. Hope to see you again soon! #afternoontea https://t.co/I0NWjToiNN 11:51 AM Sep 16th 2017 from Twitter for iPad

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Reviews of The Running Horses (Average Rating: 7 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Running Horses

Our final stop of the night was this fairly large pub located in the village of Mickleham itself. Bus stops are located conveniently right outside the pub, with London buses operating to Dorking and Kingston.

This is another pub with a clear focus on dining. As you enter and with the bar immediately in front of you, there is a large dining room off the to the left. A smaller room off to the right has much more the feel of a village pub. Outdoor drinking is possible on a patio at the front of the pub.

A range of 3 real ales are served - Brakspear Gravity, Fuller's London Pride & Surrey Hills Shere Drop. All in all, I quite liked the feel of this pub.

On 19^th September 2023 - rating: 6
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Pub SignMan left this review about The Running Horses

This rather attractive Grade II listed former coaching inn has a pretty interesting history, having been used in the past to stable racehorses who would use the 'Gallops' area on Mickleham Downs for training prior to racing in Epsom. In fact, the pub's name refers to a two-horse re-run of the 1828 Epsom Derby, following a photo finish in the original race. The two horses that day lend their name to the two bars in the present day pub - the main bar is named after the eventual winner, Cadland, whilst the lounge bar is named after the runner-up, The Colonel. The Cadland bar is a fine example of a sympathetically refurbished rural bar room, with a nice dark wood servery greeting you on entry. To the left is the room's focal point - a mighty fireplace adorned with all manner of horse related paraphernalia including horse brasses, saddles, polo mallets, paintings, hunting bugles and, rather confusingly, a cricket bat. Some proper bench seating under the front windows looked particularly tempting, although a wander into the Colonel Bar to the right found some good lounge bar alternatives including smart armchairs and some more benches around a smaller fireplace, all combining to give the room a rather homely feel - I felt I should've brought my slippers. Old photos of the village and surrounding area are worth perusing and a few newspaper clippings relating to the pub had been stuck up as well. To the left of the bar there is a large side room which acts as a formal restaurant, complete with a greeter's podium. The room has some nice wood panelled walls and loads of formally set tables and presumably doubles as the breakfast area for those taking advantage of the accommodation this old inn still provides. There is a decent rear garden, but we took our drinks out to the picnic benches at the front of the pub, where we could watch the villagers leaving the village fete which had just concluded in the Rectory over the road.
The bar supported four handpulls which offered Brakspear Bitter and Oxford Gold, Fullers London Pride and Ringwood Best. It was a bit of a surprise to see two Brakspear beers on, so I tried the Oxford Gold, which was in decent shape, although perhaps a victim of the fine weather by being served a little too warm.
We only had time for a flying visit here, which was a shame as I got the impression that this was an interesting place with plenty to discover. Despite the obvious leaning towards food, this didn't seem to diminish the experience for drinkers, thanks to the discrete position of the dining room and I can imagine enjoying a few good pints in the homely front bars.

On 21^st July 2016 - rating: 8
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Ian Mapp left this review about The Running Horses

Beautiful Location - especially when there is a wedding on at the Church over the road.

Hard to get into. The front doors look bolted from the outside (but do open). I went around the side, fought my way to the bar, bought a decent Ringwood Bitter for £3.80 and took it to the tables outside. Then watched the wedding guests struggle to get in.

On 10^th May 2015 - rating: 8
[User has posted 1338 recommendations about 1324 pubs]

View more reviews of The Running Horses (7)

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