Surrey, eh ? What even IS Surrey ? Middlesex has Russell Grant to fight its corner. Who will fight for Surrey ? Alec Stewart ? Graham Roope ?
Where would you direct the bloke landing at Heathrow from Chicago or Michigan if he said “I MUST go to Surrey ?”.
I do like a challenge. But not enough to spend more than half an hour compiling 5 pubs by typing “Surrey” into the search engine on my own blog and going “Oh, that was quite nice“.
Unlike most counties, Surrey does have a signature beer;
And when it’s good, Shere Drop is very good. Anyhow, about beer (ugh).
Sunbury-on-Thames – Admiral Hawke
Due to an ancient statute enacted during the reign of Henry V, Sunbury is legally entitled to a new GBG entry EVERY year. Don’t blame me, I just tick the Guide.
I don’t mind; Sunbury offers the best of the Thames, and all of the pubs (possibly 355 of them) have had their merits.
The Admiral Hawke might be the most basic of them;
“It looked closed, they let me in, even though they were closed, and regaled me at the bar with tales of Sunbury pub crawl T-Shirts over the best pint of Doom Bar in a year. And I’m not kidding about that (NBSS 3.5+). I even got on with the dog.”
No photos from me, but I remember the locals were having a riot,
and frankly that counts for a lot.
Surrey is the spiritual home of the Spoons, really. Gentlefolk love the food, Old Boys love the cheap Guinness.
I could have picked the one in the county town (the Rodboro), but the Sun entranced me on the afternoon before a Gatwick flight to Harare 25 years ago, and time has not diminished its charms one iota.
All human life was here. And weird seasonals, pointless collaboration ales, beers with daft names.
No-one cares about Spoons cask anymore. Except in Redhill. At the bar, an excitable young man (it’s always men) saw my £1.49 pint of Camerons and asked me what it tastes of!
“Here mate, have a try”. I said.
He looked repulsed. He was after tasting notes!
“The ching-ching-ching behind me revealed the fruit machine winner. A Carling drinker, obviously.”
Ask 100 people to describe Hersham and 98 will say “never heard of it, mate“. One will say “Must be posh, mate, Surrey, innit ?” and one (1) will say;
“Hersham boys, Hersham boys
They call us the Cockney cowboys”
displaying James Pursey’s knowledge of London geography.
Quite a plain town just within the M25, but the Bricklayers is the sort of outer London boozer that you want to see on your GBG ticking travels.
Mrs RM lives for net curtains like these;
“A very Old School landlord, cheery and polite, and an Old School line-up from which we eliminate the Spitfire and then ask for Old School nuts at the end so he has to go back to get them. We’re the sort of people who order Guinness last to annoy bar staff.”
Old skool beer, old skool peanuts. A joy.
In truth, my Surrey picks are a bit similar, that Spoons apart.
I know you’re supposed to like the Crown in Horsell, but I’ve forgotten that one (sorry Ed).
“A fairly ordinary (except to our American readers) 17th century village pub, this one is all about the licensee(s). And not because Mark gave me 10p off a half, either. If Simon had been there, he’d have remarked on me as the old bloke counting out pennies.”
“I just felt welcomed into his pub, without being interrogated. “Give me a good score on WhatPub“, he quipped, the first publican ever to say that to me. It was a 4, by the way. Cellar cool and full of flavour, as good as the Proper Job I had in Camelford.“
“A fairly recent entrant into the pub trade, Mark was happy to chat beer quality (“Clean your lines !”), opening hours (“Open when you say you will, and for as long as you can”), the death of the lunch trade, and the rarity of a bad barrel of beer. This was the southern equivalent of Brad from the Furnace, and I have no higher praise. “
There’s a lot of very unpretentious boozers in the county, and I’ve picked the next one just to show I’m not the “old grump !” one of the locals described me as.
At the end of a long session in Godalming, common sense said “have an early night”. But could you walk past a pub like the Three Lions ?
“It’s not just that golden light, either. Folk seemed to be having fun inside, and you know what Mrs RM thinks of fun.“
“One handpump dispensing an OK Spitfire and a bloke announcing himself as “the local pisshead” commandeering the jukebox and playing the Undertones back catalogue amongst other gems.“
It really is all you need. Well, that and Imperial Leather.
Of course, if you get to Godalming you really ought to visit the Star as well. But everyone does that.
Over to you for Number 6. I betcha betcha betcha that Maltmeister picks Hop Stop in Reigate
retiredmartin 
Shepherd Neame beer would make me swerve a pub like that, especially when the Star is just down the road. Why choose the Redhill Spoons too, when the Garland is just down the road?
Seriously, the best Surrey pubs are in the south of the county, away from that there London place.
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It’s not intended to be the “best” pubs, go to the GBG for the best cask, just a representative sample spread across the county. Popping in the Spoons and the Robin Hood will give you more of a sense of what towns like Redhill etc ar like than the “CAMRA” pubs ! If I picked 5 in Tonbridge I’d definitely pick one of the backstreet one pump pubs alongside the Nelson and Fuggles, for example.
I wouldn’t expect the visitor to drink Sheps, stick to Guinness and you’ll be fine.
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I’ve got a soft spot for Master Brew
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One of the four “GBG counties” I’ve actually lived in, but I haven’t been to any of those pubs except perhaps for the one in Knaphill. It was a long time ago and I don’t precisely remember every single pub I visited.
Back then, the county did have a fair number of unspoilt, characterful pubs, but I’d expect most have now been either closed, “improved” or gone gastro. I’d say Friary Meux Bitter was the signature beer 😀
It also had a distinctive strand of rather grand, traditional Young’s pubs like the Swan in Walton-on-Thames and the Black Horse at Gomshall, but I’d expect those are now much changed too. Indeed a quick look at WhatPub tells me that the latter is now permanently closed.
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I agree on Friary Meux being the signature beer. There was one pub just out of recall, near Great Bookham, which looked relative unchanged and with upmarket gentlefolk drinkers, but they’re few and far between.
A few pubs I thought were Surrey are actually Sussex, e.g. the old one in Hadlow Down.
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I would nominate the Cricketers in Dorking and the William IV in Mickleham. Both definitely characterful and Cricketers remains ‘wet’. Dorking surprisingly good for a pub crawl, in fact.
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Once you have got through the “S” and “W” counties you will be at the business end of the GBG, i.e. Yorkshire.
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No, if he was going to do them they would surely have been under North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire.
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Despite its reputation as an upmarket, monied county, Surrey is still blessed with some lovely old villages, plus the odd gem of a pub.
It also has some really attractive countryside, as I discovered a couple of years ago, whilst walking the North Downs Way.
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Quick shout out for The Surrey Oaks in Newdigate and The Jolly Farmer in Bramley. There, done it.
Always had a soft spot for The Old Wheatsheaf in Frimley Green, The William Cobbett in Farnham and The Merry Harriers in Hambledon, for reasons beyond beer and pubs.
Also, whilst Friary Muck used to be Surrey’s signature beer, these days I’d argue that it’s Hog’s Back TEA rather than Shere Drop, even if I prefer the latter.
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You probably see more TEA than I do, Bobby, though thinking about it, it would be my beer choice (as it was just over the border in Farnborough recently).
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I’ve been to the Royal Oak a few times over the years but went to The Crown on Friday and Saturday night this week. I love it.
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