Tuesday 28 October 2008

The Willoughby Arms

Promoted as mainly a sports pub this place looks incredibly like the Kelly Arms with it's late 19th century masonry. Once we were inside, first thing to notice were the walls covered with large fearsome hunting trophies - antelopes, foxes, bears and large cats. Also sharing the wall with the animal heads were plenty of awards, curiously none of them issued after 2003.
There is also a separate games room so no one has to endure the oversized sky sports screen if they don't want to.
Now you'd be thinking this sounds the nice traditional sort of pub, and you'd be right if traditional means intoxicated old men in body warmers constantly swearing at staff and customers alike. This one particular guy was ordering a pint with with the intelligence and dialect of an infant, now you'd think he'd be told to go home but no. The bar maid was clueless and didn't batter an eyelid even when being told she was a "f**king c**t". After finishing his pint and rummaging round for 10 minutes in search of his keys he finally left, but not before falling into Andrew on the way out.
Plenty more weirdos came and went, an egotistical yob who entered by shouting "No autograffs!!!" I didn't understand it either. A fat man in tracksuit bottoms who managed to drop his keys down his trouser leg and under our table, I don't want to know where he keeps them.
The landlord spent most of his time at the bar on a laptop making naff posters with clipart, not noticing or caring about a thing.
By the end I felt like the poor ginger cat who sat black-eyed praying to be let out. If we were stupid enough to come back I'll imagine he'll be next on the wall.
-Alex




Another one of those pubs over in ‘East Kingston’, far out of the town center and set up as more of a local pub, and it defiantly gave off that vibe. As I arrived a bit before the others and it was a chilly evening I went in to see what it was like and although large looking form the outside it was quite cramped within, a few small groups and the largest room was darkened for a big screen football game. I would assume that we were the only non-locals and everyone seemed to have a passing familiarity with each other adn the guys giving abuse to the bar staff didn’t seem to provoke any action to stop it and acted as if it was the norm. Interesting decoration of certificate form years gone byand possible some stuffed roadkill (the larger ones possible coming from Richmond park perhaps. Probobly not one to re-visit, even if I lived locally!
-Andrew


Drinks Price
(Strongbow, JD & Coke, J2O)

Snacks

Alex's Score

Andrew's Score

Oliver's Score

£8.50

Yes

4.6

4.2

5.2




1 comment:

Cathy Pugh said...

Really a lovely family friendly local pub. They do have sports sessions which tend to be frequented by men but they also have fabulous bar-be-ques in the garden which the children love - just as they love the wildlife in the pond, etc. Sells real ales and has really friendly clients - I attended the quiz night on Sunday and liked it so much that I went back for the comedy night as well. Even took my mother-in-law down to play pool. Definitely will be going again.