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Image posted by Moby Duck
Submitted on Sunday, 24th June 2018
With picture contributions to 1045 other pubs
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Detail Pages
The King Charles, Poole
Poole
BH15 1JN
Served areas
Reviews of The King Charles (Average Rating: 6½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The King Charles
I used to regularly frequent this pub in the late ‘90’s as it was one of two pubs on and around Poole Quay that we were always able to get served in prior to turning 18. I’d not been back since those day, when we would inevitably congregate in the upstairs room where there was normally a DJ blasting out dance and Britpop tunes at a suitably loud volume. Things were very different twenty-odd years later, when we visited on a depressingly quiet Saturday evening, finding a relatively unchanged layout but very muted atmosphere. You enter through a short passageway which has a couple of small front rooms off to either side, both of wish have some decent traditional seating options and one of which boasts a nice little fireplace and an etched glass partitioning screen bearing the words ‘Coffee Room’. These rooms are decorated with plenty of old breweriana and have an intimate quality that you don’t find through the rest of the pub. At the end of the passageway, you emerge into the main bar area which has modern laminate flooring through the middle and a carpeted seating area to the right. The bar runs down the left-hand wall and has a nice wood panelled counter front and mirrored bar back with a collection of old nautical themed photos along the canopy. The room has some ancient looking beams running across the ceiling, many of which have old jugs, tankards and other such drinking vessels hanging from them. There are some half height wall panels around the seating area, broken by a fake fireplace with a relocated brass hood, whilst the upper half of the walls have been decorated with a great old pub sign, an out of action TV screen and similarly redundant dartboard and a high shelf stacked with coloured bottles which were backlit to good visual effect. The room runs to the rear of the building where a few high tables and stools can be found occupied by the locals in a space that has a bit of a public bar feel to it, thanks to its jukebox and functioning dartboard. A staircase to the left of the bar leads up to the aforementioned first floor overspill room, which has a nice, high pitched ceiling, muted lighting accentuated by fairy light features and a good deal of additional seating.
The pub stopped serving cask ale for a while but has re-introduced it again in recent years to some acclaim, with three hand pumps in operation dispensing Taylors Landlord, Harveys Sussex Best and Sharps Doom Bar on this visit. The young barmaid who served us has to be one of the most enthusiastic and friendly bar staff I’ve encountered and served me a well-kept pint of Landlord before checking back to make sure we were enjoying our drinks a bit later on.
It was nice popping back to this pub for a quick nightcap and blast of nostalgia. I certainly appreciated the cask ales and two pleasant traditional front rooms a lot more this time round and wasn’t particularly sad to see the DJ wasn’t playing. There are better pubs around Pool Quay and the Old Town area but this one holds up reasonably well in comparison and would be worth adding to a crawl of the area.
On 18th November 2020
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Danny O'Revey left this review about The King Charles
Lovely old pub with various seating areas, beams, including two front rooms. Shame the beer quality is poor and the fires are electric
On 28th July 2019
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1456 recommendations about 1434 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The King Charles
Nice looking old pub but a dull beer range, Doom Bar, Atlantic and Tribute, the later was in tired condition, not good enough to entice me back in a hurry.
On 24th June 2018
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1872 recommendations about 1845 pubs]
View more reviews of The King Charles (8)
No known official website for this pub.
- Facebook - The King Charles Pub- Poole
- CAMRA WhatPub :: The King Charles - whatpub.com
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : No last updated 19 June 2015 by E TA
- Bar Billiards : Yes last updated 20 January 2015 by Quinno _
- Beer Garden : No last updated 14 January 2018 by Graham Coombs
- CAMRA Discount : No last updated 20 January 2015 by Quinno _
- Car Park : No last updated 20 January 2015 by Quinno _
- Darts : Yes last updated 20 January 2015 by Quinno _
- Dog Friendly : Yes last updated 14 January 2018 by Graham Coombs
- Function Room : Yes last updated 14 January 2018 by Graham Coombs
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 20 January 2015 by Quinno _
- Jukebox : Yes last updated 14 January 2018 by Graham Coombs
- Karaoke : No last updated 20 January 2015 by Quinno _
- Live Music : Yes last updated 14 January 2018 by Graham Coombs
- Live TV Sports : Yes last updated 14 January 2018 by Graham Coombs
- Micropub : No last updated 19 June 2015 by E TA
- Pinball : No last updated 20 January 2015 by Quinno _
- Pool Table : No last updated 20 January 2015 by Quinno _
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 20 January 2015 by Quinno _
- Real Cider : No last updated 14 January 2018 by Graham Coombs
- Wheelchair Access : No last updated 14 January 2018 by Graham Coombs
- WiFi : Yes last updated 18 November 2020 by Pub SignMan
