After two consecutive “Proper Pubs” it was inevitable the last new Guide entry in Medway would be a micro pub. But, hey, not all micros are woeful middle-aged drinking clubs, are they ?
To add to the sense of fun I walked from Chatham to Rochester, which is virtually contiguous, a word I can now spell but never really understand.
Medway may appear scruffy to the ill-informed, but this must be one of the most interesting OS extracts so far.
Historic dockyards and castles to the north, hilly estates and prisons to the south, micropubs all around, and a river runs through it.
There’s some elegant architecture as you cross into Rochester, which is apparently holding some sort of Dickens festival. A weekend when Rochester wasn’t holding some sort of Dickens festival would be news.
Obviously very few of the buildings are used for their original purpose.
The eastern end of Rochester High Street isn’t as touristy or chintzy as the west towards the castle, which suits me fine, and probably means the rents are a bit cheaper for the new micros like Northern Seaman and Flippin’ Frog.
What distinguishes the Frog, apart from some idiosyncratic humour, is a classy bar food menu that was bringing in a much more mixed crowd than normal i.e. folk under 50.
A good local beer range too, with the Tonbridge Chestnut selling like horse chestnuts (NBSS 3.5).
The chap on the left below demanded to know why I wasn’t taking a photo of him.
“I get in all the photos in here when the micropub tourists come” (or words to that effect).
Happy to oblige, Sir.
He knows his pubs, and gave me a blow-by-blow account of the state of Rochester’s great pub stock, most of which will delight BRAPA when he gets here.
But the star, as so often, is the Gents.
retiredmartin 
Bar food in a micropub? Martin Hillier will be spluttering into his beer. And are there micropub tourists now?.
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Micro pub tourists…why?
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Oh, I’ve met the, bus passes and free rail travel, working their way round South east London and the Kent coast, nearly as weird as those blokes who visit all the Beer Guide pubs.
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They remind me of old game shows where they used to get people to cram into a phone box or a Mini.
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Why? Good question. Here in Bristol we have a couple and both of them are like mausoleums (mausolea?) Good beer and reasonably priced but dead. You need a paper to read to stop yourself from just staring at the wall and waiting for death to come as a merciful release.
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I’m glad you said that and not me Bill. They’re either too busy so you have to stand, or too quiet, and I don’t like that high seating round the walls at all. Give me proper bench seating.
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Cracking bit of ordnance survey that, Sir
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The chap in the photo looks very middle class micro stereotype 🍺 surely the point of small pubs is for them to be unique rather than chain and if food works then why not?
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Exactly. Pubs can appeal to who they like; I just prefer the variety a bit of food and wider drinks offer produces.
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Definitely agree wider drinks selection but sometimes prefer food free 👍
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That fellow who wanted his photo taken looks a little bit like the owner of the original micropub, The Butchers Arms (Martyn Hillier).
As for “Now a Meze, now a Chinese”, you should have followed up with ‘now a small drinkeries” (or some such). 🙂
Cheers
PS – “and a river runs through it.”
Argh! Should have saved my Crimea River pun for here. 😉
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