Farnham Pub Explorations

Back at the end of July, our intrepid posse of pub researchers were en-route to Farnham by train, having completing part one of the day's itinerary in neighbouring Alton.

Farnham is home to around 40,000 folks (making it around twice the size of Alton).  It's situated within the Surrey Hills in countryside that offers lots of walking opportunities, so I'm feeling a little guilty now for doing nothing but traipsing around five pubs.

The first of these was on the main thoroughfare through the town centre, a street that would be charmingly picturesque if not for half of Surrey trying to drive down it on this afternoon.
We were on our way to the 2022 Fullers Pub of the Year...

The Queens Head (9 The Borough, Farnham, GU9 7NA)
The cask hand pumps take pride of place in their own section of the bar directly in front of the entrance.
Serving a trio of beers from the greater Fullers empire - Dark Star 'Hophead', Gales 'ESB', and 'London Pride'.  I went for the one of the three that I see least frequently, the 'HSB', which was on good form without being a beer you'd get overly excited about.

This was originally a timber-framed building which served as a coffee shop from around 1735 onwards.  It was given a 19th century modernisation with a red brick frontage and transformed to an inn.
Fullers seem to have done a good job of making this appeal to a wide range of customers.  It's comfortable to eat in without food dominating, has some snug spots to take your drinks to, and puts on regular live music (Dahlia's Comet and Beatroot appearing soon).  

My photography in the Queens Head was somewhat random.
I bring you my Queens Head gallery: her majesty's neck tattoos, barstool reading material, and tiffany lamps.

 

The local CAMRA folk in our group were discussing policies and governance.
Kentish Paul was being served a Club Ciabatta in the front room, because he's sensible.  We can't all forego food until the end of the day, then sit with Chinese takeaways in Retired Martin's hotel room.

You can get a full ciabatta review on Paul's blog.  In fact, what are you even doing here?  Paul provides all the pub background you need without any of my spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

I finished my half pint quickly and headed around the corner to get some lunch of my own.  After some nourishment I was found by one of our pub tour's stragglers who'd split from the rest of us and come to Farnham by bus.  Together we made our way through peaceful backstreets to the Hop Blossom pub.

The Hop Blossom (50 Long Garden Walk, Farnham, GU9 7HX)
This was built in 1864 and named after the hop fields which were once opposite this site.  No fields these days, but the outdoor seats by the flower tubs were a good spot to relax with a beer in this quiet location in the warm weather.

Inside, the pub is L-shaped with a bar counter straddling the corner, seating to either side and a bright conservatory added to the rear.
More Fullers fare on the handpumps, with the addition of a St Austell guest.

I ordered a half of the 'Anthem', St Austell's summery session beer, brewed with four English hops with some Cornish Gold malt thrown into the mix of grains.
The Hop Blossom was a pleasant little gem slightly off the beaten track, a wet-led town pub which is one of Farnham's two current 2025 Beer Guide entries.

There was little distance to cover between the pubs, our next destination being no more than a couple of minutes walk.
This was located on Castle Street, heavy on the parked cars, but saved from the traffic horrors of the main road and home to some lovely buildings.

The Nelson Arms (50-52 Castle Street, Farnham, GU9 7JQ)
This building was originally three 14th century cottages, parts of which became the Hand and Pen pub in the early 1600's.  It appears to have had a couple of name changes since, now named after Admiral Horatio Nelson who had a fondness for Farnham (or at least for a lady here).

Our beer choice came in the form of local Hogs Back 'T.E.A' or Timothy Taylor 'Landlord' or 'Golden Best'.
A lesser-seen Golden Best for me, right at the end of the barrel, although the landlord diligently came and replaced these with a new cask freshly tapped.

The internal beams are apparently original old bits of wood and are reputed to have come from a Tudor warship. One beam is said to once have Lord Nelson's eyeglass lodged into it, but someone half-inched that years ago.

A thoroughly pleasant pub with a bit of a shortage of mid-afternoon punters.

Right, onward, to a recent addition to Farnham's pubs that turned out to be a bit of an unexpected delight...

The Tellers Arms (75 Castle Street, Farnham, GU9 7LP)
This new Youngs pub opened in October 2024 after conversion from its former incarnation as Lloyds Bank.
The building dates back to the 1930's when it replaced an earlier bank with Tudor frontage which wasn't deemed to fit in with the surroundings.  Remarkably, it became a listed building just 19 years after being built.

It's a pretty impressive place...

The front is made up of a variety of seating options with lots of nooks and crannies.  A large U-shaped bar in the centre with eye-catching old bank clock cantilevered over it.  Beyond the bar the pub stretches on into a low-ceilinged parquet-floored lounge area, ideal for dining, sprawling on chesterfields, or hiding in the depths of some ginormous chairs.  

Ales on the bar were Young's Original, Hogsback 'T.E.A', and Surrey Hills 'Shere Drop'.  Gotta be the Shere Drop when in Surrey - an enjoyable beer, but the priciest of the day.
We stuck to propping up the high table in front of the bar, a table which continued the banking theme... 

A truly impressive pub conversion, which must have set back Youngs quite a few more pennies that make up that table top. Good luck to 'em - I hope it does well.

Talking of impressive pub conversions, onward to our final destination...

The Borough Beer House (6 Town Hall Buildings, Farnham, GU9 7ND)
Opened in 2023, this is the recipient of CAMRA's Pub Design Award in 2025 for conversion to pub use.  We were doing well in Farnham for award winners and Grade II listed buildings.
The Bailiff's Hall dates back to 1674 and is full of character...

The six cask handpumps served five beers on this occasion, a mild, a bitter, and three pales.  I opted for the murky Nightjar 5.1% 'Dua NEIPA', £5.20 a pint.
With all seats occupied downstairs most of us gravitated to the larger upstairs room.

Beyond the cask there was a superb offering of proper cider and 18 keg lines, all displayed on neat clipboards...

With third-of-a-pints on offer I indulged in a Vault City pear, chocolate and vanilla sour and a marvellous Yonder 'Mini Battenburg'.
Plenty more interesting beers in the Borough Beer House whose consumption would have made successful navigation of all those changes on the journey home challenging.

Just don't make any unnecessary stops in pubs on the way.
Doh!

The Old Ford (Lynchford Road, Ash Vale, GU12 5QA)
Well, it was right next to North Camp station and it was ten minutes until the next train to Reading.
The Old Ford is a Victorian pub that was built at the same time and in the same style as the station.  The outdoor seating behind the picket fence was proving popular, less folk within the crisply white and airy interior.

And you're possibly not allowed to leave Surrey without partaking in a Hogs Back TEA.

A lovely day out taking in a good selection of Alton and Farnham pubs.
Big thanks to Mick for putting the itinerary together, guiding the group around the route, and not diverting us into a wild-card shisha bar at any point.

Alton's Pride

Friday 25th July.  Hook's finest pub afficionado, Mick Citra, had put together an intinerary for a Pubs & Beer forum/Camra Discourse 'pub research' trip to the towns of Alton and Farnham.  For me, this was two destinations I hadn't previously explored.  Plus good company, a brew pub, lesser-seen ales, and craft beer in a coverted 16th century guild hall. 
All of which sounded like a fine day out...

I made my journey to Alton from Oxford, remarkably managing to select the right Alton and not ending up in Staffordshire riding the Oblivion all day.
Oxford > Reading. Reading > North Camp. Ten minutes on foot to Ash Vale. Ash Vale > Alton.
A fiddly trip, but smooth-running until things went a little wrong on the last leg.  That put me 30-minutes behind schedule and meant I missed the town museum which Martin would later tell me shouldn't be missed.

It also meant I didn't really have sufficient time to make a pre-noon visit to Spoons, but I still marched down the High Street determined not to let train confusion scupper my JDW tick.
The The Ivy House (88 High Street, Alton, GU34 1SS)
An unusual looking Spoons, I thought on first glance. To be fair, my picture has cut off the 19th century family home that was the original Ivy House. That later turned into a medical practice, presumably lost any ivy coverage that gave it its name, then was converted to a Wetherspoon's in 2015, incorporating the neighbouring office building too.
Inside it's bright and airy and big with two sections of seating on different levels across the two buildings.

The guest beer selection wasn't the most exciting on this visit, although I was happy with my Sambrook's 'Powerhouse Porter'. Not that my half-pint lasted long - that later-than-planned arrival gave me around 5-minutes in Spoons as I met up with Mick and a couple of today's other pub crawlers researchers who were just getting ready to move on to the first venue proper of the day.

A five minute walk down the HIgh Street and a left turn into the shops and eateries of Westbrook Walk took us to the Ten Tun Brewery and Tap House.

Ten Tun Tap House (1 Westbrook Walk, Alton, GU34 1HZ)
We met up with the rest of today's group, including a couple of familiar faces alongside some new ones, at the bar.  Enough of us to generate a queue which the cheerful and chatty sole staff member dealt with admirably and which I somehow ended up at the back of.

There were two cask ales on offer: bitter in Iron Pier or Marble varieties.  I opted for the Iron Pier from Gravesend, Kent, a deep golden trad ale, brewed with English hop varieties.

The Ten Tun opened as a micro bar at the - highly unfortunate - time of March 2020.  They busied themselves with home deliveries during lock downs, then went from strength-to-strength when normality returned (depending on your definition of 'normality').  Expansion into the neighbouring units provided a second seating area, then a brewery which began production in October 2023.

Their own beers are keg only, so I'd skipped them by stickng to cask on arrival.
I suffered a sudden fear of missing out moment, drank the rest of my bitter, then popped to the bar to ensure I'd tried one of the on-site brews.

I returned with a very tasty, very murky, half of 'PizzaJumpScare'.
We were pondering at the time how they'd come up with such a beer name.  Looking at it now I had a thought that it could be related to What 3 Words navigation?  Pizza/Jump/Scare lands you on a Dorset beach, so maybe not.

That What 3 Words website is fascinating.
Right, drinks finished in the Ten Tun Tap, we were off to Redefined/Table/Mermaids...

The Eight Bells (33 Church Street, Alton, GU34 2DA)
It's not the most photogenic of pubs, especially on a cloudy day, with a rather non-descript white-washed frontage on the curve of Church Street, crying out for some hanging baskets.  But step inside this Grade II listed building, which has been a pub since the 1840s, and it's a cracking place.
With a traditional carpet...

Traditional opening hours...

And a traditional beer range...

Three cask bitters available from Bowland, Black Sheep, and Flowerpots.  So what sort of numpty would ask for 'half a bitter, please' without specifying which one.  Ah, that'd be me.
I also have a feeling that the pick of the bunch was the Flowerpots 'Peridge Pale' which was fetched from a room to the back of the bar where it was poured straight from the barrel.  That was certainly getting the thumbs-up from all those who'd picked it.

The longest walk of the day between pubs followed, as we navigated the side streets to reach the Railway Arms.

The Railway Arms (26 Anstey Road, Alton, GU34 2RB)
This is a pub that I really liked as soon as we walked through the door.  Actually, as soon as I saw the train-coming-out-the-tunnel signage on the outside.  The main U-shaped room has a back-to-basics feel to it, with a fair bit of clutter, a range of different seating options, wooded floorboards, old advertising signs, and a Watney Red Barrel on the wall.

This is a Tripple fff pub which had three of their own beers on offer: 'Sundown', 'Moondance', and Alton's Pride', plus a guest in the form of Glamorgan 'Flow Rider'.  There's also a tower of boxed ciders on one side of the bar, should those take your fancy instead.
My half of 'Altons Pride' was a bit ropey to be honest and would have been returned to the bar by someone with a better beer tasting palate than mine.  To make up for it the 'Sundown' was superb - a wickedly bitter pale ale which went down a treat.

So, a good start to the day in Alton.
Just gone 2pm and we were ready to make a short hop to the station and catch the train to Farnham.
A final bit of advice from the Railway...

...and we were off.

Chorzów

One final post from Poland, July 2025. 
This one featuring Chorzów in the rain, football friendlies and brew pubs.

Head northwest from Katowice and at some point you'll cross into neighbouring Chorzów, one of the contiguous cities that make up the sprawl of the GZM metropolitan area.
The average tourist is probably less likely to venture far into Chorzów beyond a visit to the expansive Silesia Park.  

I was here for the football.

Not the Ekstraklasa big-match clash I would have liked.  Far from it.
But with the league starting very early in Poland this summer, clubs were squeezing their friendly fixtures in at the beginning of July and Ruch were taking on Puszcza Niepołomice.

Ruch Chorzów have a super old-school stadium with one grandstand and a trad oval of seats open to the elements.  But a glimpse through the railings showed this was looking a bit battered and bruised and it hasn't been used for over a year.
The friendly game, meanwhile, was taking place on a training pitch behind the old stadium.

12 noon kick-off.  Waved in for free by the stewards, souvenir mug bulging in my raincoat pocket.
I counted roughly 130 folks stood on the bank or perched on the little bank of seats.
So, more successful than the Club World Cup then. 
With no cover and the rain settling in for the afternoon, I didn't think I'd last the whole 90-minutes.

Yet I really quite enjoyed it.  A 1-1 scoreline in a closely contested game.

Right, time for a post-match Tyskie, I think.

The closest establishment listed as 'pub' on Google maps was Sayonara located on the main road just a couple of minutes from the turnstiles.

Sayonara (BoWiD 45, 41-506 Chorzów)
I was kinda hoping for a cosy bar in which to warm up - hells bells, it was July and after a couple of hours on a grassy bank watching football I was wishing I had my gloves.
Sadly, Sayonara was not a cosy bar.
Much of the interior was hidden away with the lights out, the only indoor option being a deep corner-hugging brown leather sofa under a fish tank and a shelf of magazines.  More like a barber shop waiting area than pub.

But I reckon no-ones blogged about Sayona ever before (or Ruch Chorzów friendlies for that matter (I should really check Pubmeister's blog before making that claim).
So I was happy.

Five lagers on offer: Pilsner Urquel, Lech, Tyskie, Kozel, or Książęce.  I stuck with Tyskie, then felt guilty as the young chap at the bar tried to conjure up his English for 'change the barrel'.

Sat under the umbrellas on the terrace, I hatched a plan to sample more interesting beers from two Chorzow breweries.

I swigged the last of the Tyskie, returned the glass to the bar (is that a thing in Poland?) and scooted around the corner to catch a bus for a 10-minute ride through the backstreets to the dual carriageway Katowica.
A short-cut on foot through the Paczka Galeria shopping centre, then into the huge Silesian Park, where I passed the stadium where Ruch currently play their competitive fixtures.
Still raining...

Ten-minutes walk into the park took me to the brewpub by the lake.
Great location.  All it needs in a bit of July sunshine.

Browar Przystań (aleja Klonowa 4, 41-516 Chorzów)
First signs weren't good when stepping inside: a waiting area with velvet curtains and cocktail bar style furniture; A-boards suggesting you have your wedding reception here; and a 'please wait to be seated' sign.  I skipped past that and asked if I was okay to just have a beer, giving me the chance to scrutinize the pump clips and get served at the bar.

Standard brewpub beer choices here: pils, wheat, marzen, honey.
I went with the 'Marcowe', 4.8%, way too thin and watery for my liking.  Almost twice the price of my earlier Tyskie.
This was one of the few places I encountered that was cash-only - yet looked the least likely place ever to not take card payments.

I was the only soul foolish enough to walk through the park in the rain to a brewpub on a midweek afternoon and had the whole place to myself.  Which didn't make for a thrilling visit.

To be fair, I did come back with Mrs PropUptheBar a couple of days later when the weather improved and the terrace overlooking the lake is a great place to sit and sip a beer.  The Pils proved to be a slightly better option that the marzen.

There's another brewpub in Chorzów that I'd visited years back and was keen to return to.
It's located in a nice neighbourhood with some grand four-storey mansions lining the streets, but the pub itself doesn't make for much of a picture.

Minibrowar Reden (Jana III Sobieskiego 17, 41-530 Chorzów)
A few steps below pavement level, Reden is an L-shaped traditional bar, brewing equipment on view, although I have a feeling beers are now concocted on an industrial estate a couple of miles away.
Their own pils, midowy (honey), cold IPA and sour ale were available on tap, a couple more options in bottles.

But I only had (foolhardy) eyes for the  draft 11% 'Imperial Porter'.  The bar staff went straight for the large glass - no qualms about selling double-digit brews in micro measures only here.  I intervened and went small, with the plan to be able to walk in a straight line when I got back to Katowice.

A great run of music: Dio 'Rainbow in the Dark', 'Black Velvet', 'Lets Get Together', Gary Moore's 'Parisian Walkways'.
All quite pleasant with a boozy, chewy coffee and chocolate porter and a good soundtrack.

But I had to move on and get back to Katowice where Mrs PropUptheBar had done everything she needed to do for the day and was diving into craft beers at Upojeni.

Upojeni Multitap (Świętego Jana 10, 40-000 Katowice)
The one beer hotspot that was missing from the last post.
Just off the main road in a smart refurbished arcade, this is a stylish bar set over two floors, quickly filling up with post-work custom shortly after we arrived.

I opted for the very smooth and easy-going (well it would be compared to 11% stout, wouldn't it) 'Milołak' from ReCraft.  A milk stout brewed in Świętochłowice a few miles to the west.

We stuck around and ordered pizza and another dark brew, this time Browar Hajer's 5.5% 'Farorz'.

With a good number of craft beer bars in Katowice, I began to take those beer boards for granted.  Yet I miss them now I'm back in Oxford.
Nothing like it here, and we're about to lose our Brewdog which, whatever you think of them, always had something interesting on the drinks menu.

That's Poland wrapped-up on the blog.
Back to Birmingham, London and Hampshire for the next few posts.