From the Perseverance to a Maidenhead Newbie

After a week of craft beers in Estonia and Latvia I was craving a pint of cask ale. So we headed to the eastern edges of Berkshire on a grey and overcast day to get one.  Or two.

Our first port of call was the village of Wraysbury, a few miles to the east of Windsor. It takes just under 10-minutes from Windsor on the slow train which was already busy with rugby fans making their way early to Twickenham.
We were the sole passengers to alight in Wraysbury, an historic village with a population of just over 4,000.  It's a delight for plane spotters, being on the western approach to Heathrow airport, although we found the novelty of a jumbo jet roaring by just over our heads wore off pretty quickly.

Wraysbury has two pubs and a club, but we just stuck to the Good Beer Guide listed Perseverance. 

The Perseverance (2 High Street, Wraysbury, TW19 5DB - web)
The front room is almost certainly the best of the seating areas in this pleasant village pub.  Wooden beams, piano, a dart board which would require some hefty furniture moving to make it usable, and a grand inglenook fireplace.
I'm not quite sure why we didn't sit in there: I think I was too nervous about being told off by the landlady for sitting somewhere which was reserved - I was already getting suspicious looks after taking a picture of the pump clip.

There were three ales on offer: an Otter bitter and two stouts.  I started with the J.W.Lees and Salt collaboration, a very tasty export stout named 'The Mighty Deep'.
Once we'd negotiated our way past the 'food for pre-booked reservations only' rule (a little odd, as it wasn't that busy) I followed the export stout with an Irish dry stout: Morrisman' from the local Elusive Brewery.  Another good beer on top form.

Suitably fed and refreshed in the Perseverance, we hopped aboard a train back to Windsor Riverside station, then passed through the centre of the town which was looking a lot busier with tourists compared to my last couple of visits here.
We were making our way to Good Beer Guide entry The Trooper...

The Windsor Trooper (97 St Leonards Street, Windsor, SL4 3BZ - web)
The rectangular front room of the Trooper looked great, with sectioned bench seating and tables designed for communal drinking and conversation.  No distractions here other than the plentiful collection of breweriana on the walls.
There's lots more space - and sport on TV - in a hall-like room to the rear and on a smart patio with covered and heated seating.

On the bar there was an Adnam's 'Southwold Bitter' and Oakham 'Citra', alongside four from Mad Squirrel.
Trust me to pick the wrong one. The 'Extra Squirrelly Bitter' was a dubious pint, not helped by the dispense method of sitting the glass on the drip tray and pumping the hand pull for ages with a bored expression.

Dubious beer.  Should really have taken it back.

Mrs PropUptheBar made a far better choice with the cider, the pub having won a recent local Cider Pub of the Year accolade.

We had a 20-minute walk ahead of us on roads less trodden by the average Windsor tourist.  Clewer Village is located just across the A332, midway between Windsor Castle and the  Racecourse.  The Swan is one of those Beer Guide location oddities, that really could just be listed under Windsor.

The Swan (9 Mill Lane, Clewer Village, SL4 5JG - web)
It's a community owned pub, brought back to life by local investors in 2019 after being closed for over 3 years.  The pictures on their website suggest it underwent some pretty drastic stripping back to bare bones, so no surprise that the single room is bright, airy and modern.  

A reasonable and varied Saturday afternoon crowd were mostly focused on the Six Nations on the TV.  Yes, it's that time of year again.  
Which means rugby themed beers - always best avoided - though for reasons unknown I succumbed to the Windsor and Eton 'Last Drop' here.

Our route back took us back through Alexandra Park by the riverside and up an old concrete staircase to station level.  But half-way up we spotted this in the railway arches...

Ooooh, we could always get a later train!

Two Flints Brewery Taproom (The Arches, 25-26 Alma Road, Windsor, SL4 1QZ)
Only open a matter of months, there was a decent crowd enjoying the crafty offerings from the bar and shouting at the rugby on a screen somewhere upstairs.  Seating was located on long benches on two levels, with the brew kit bathed in purple stretching into the depths of the place.
Twelve tap lines served a selection of their own beers alongside varied and interesting guest ales - a Two Flints murky 6.8% New England IPA named 'Cosmic Dance' for me, please.

 

I made a quick check to see if anyone had turned Keith's Shed at Windsor Central station into a micropub...

Nope, not yet.

Before we jumped aboard a train and made our way back to Slough, then onward to Maidenhead.
Apparently I'd neglected to mention to Mrs PropUptheBar that I intended to add a visit to Maidenhead onto the end of the day.
Her enthusiasm rose when taking on the not inconsiderable challenge of navigating the town's western housing estates; dipped quite low once we reached the pub; then rose again when we found a new craft bar.

Heck, it was a long way to the North Star...

But at least a perusal of their website confirmed it offered everything we needed:

The North Star (91 Westborough Road, Maidenhead SL6 4AP - web)
A two-room backstreet local, we headed through the main door into a steamy and busy main bar with the England rugby match on the big screen being watched by an enthusiastic crowd.
With no hand pumps in sight I had to ask after the ale and was given a choice of Timothy Taylor or Rebellion.

There was nowhere to sit, or even feasibly stand, in the main bar we headed through to the empty side room which is where they hide the real ale, local CAMRA magazines and weirdo pub tickers (that'll be me).

It was a little odd knowing one half of the pub was heaving whilst we sat in peace and quiet, but not entirely unpleasant.
Helped a lot by a cracking cheese & onion cob and the Rebellion 'Adventurer' being a decent traditional dark ale on good form.

Leaving the North Star we trekked the streets on a different route back to the centre and found our way to A Hoppy Place.  This is located on the ground floor of brand new smart housing blocks which were a building site when I was last here.  The town is regenerating as folks relocate to be within 30-minutes of London by the Elizabeth Line and 5-minutes walk from Doom Bar in the Maidenhead Conservative Club.
Or, if they're really lucky, living just above A Hoppy Place...

A Hoppy Place (Units 1-3 Trinity Place, Park Street, Maidenhead, SL6 1TJ - web)
Opened in June 2022, this is an expansion of the bottle shop/bar in Windsor.  But unlike the Windsor branch, this is a spacious place with a range of seating options and large bar counter.
There are cask ales - making this a shoe-in for the next Beer Guide, surely - plus 14 keg lines and a fridge full of cans and bottles.

So after setting out in the morning for fine pint of cask ale, I ended the evening back on the craft beer.
Next you'll be telling me it's all the rage!

Windsor Pub Explorations

Swans.  That's what I'm going for to catch the eye at the top of the blog post covering a late-October trip to Windsor.
Pub cats are always best, but I've seen few in the past months and pub dogs have been elusive and camera-shy.

It was May 2019 that I was last in Windsor. 
This time around I had a couple of different pubs to tick off, as well as walking around the streets of the regal town in the Autumnal sunshine.

The first stop of the day, after a stroll along the riverside, was the local brewery taproom.
Yep, decent swan picture, lacklustre brewery picture...

Windsor & Eton Brewery Taproom (1 Vansittart Estate, Duke Street, SL4 1SE - web)
Visit on the weekend and you can grab a table among'st the brewery kit.  But as we called in on a midweek lunchtime the brewery was in full work-place action and taproom visitors are consigned to four tables to one side of the shop.
So, okay, not the most atmospheric place to drink, but there's no denying that the 'Knight of the Garter' was in as good a condition as you'd expect a few meters away from where it's brewed.

Making my bag a little heavier with a few bottles of 'Scumbag Maggot', we left Windsor and Eton Brewery and walked through the side streets back toward the centre.

Mrs PropUptheBar has developed an uncanny knack of finding craft beer emporiums wherever we go.
I would have walked straight past the blackboard advertising A Hoppy Place, but she spotted it at a distance and demanded a diversion from itinerary to drink something stupidly strong.

A Hoppy Place (11 St Leonard's Road, Windsor, SL4 3BN - web)
This is located in a narrow shop unit, with fridges along one side, bar at the back and a handful of tables down the middle.
I've always found it a little odd drinking in a shop - never a substitute for a great pub - although this delivered an impressive choice of beer and cider, with friendly and enthusiastic staff.

It may have been far too early in the day, but I inevitably picked the strongest beer on offer - a Neptune Brewery 'Triptych BBA Wild Turkey' stout.  Great stuff.

Not the prettiest - but they'll do you a same day beer delivery.

Walking around Windsor I'd pointed out a number of lovely looking pubs to Mrs PropUptheBar including the floral displays on the frontage of the Two Brewers by the south gates of the castle. 
And then I took her to the thoroughly dull modern concrete building that houses Acre... 

Not the prettiest, but handy for the bus stop.

The Acre (Donnelly House, Victoria Street, Windosr, SL4 1EN - web)
This was formerly the Liberal Club, and whilst it still incorporates this, it's now open to the public.
It was Happy Hour, with pints of Windsor & Eton 'Conqueror' coming in at a wallet-friendly £2.00.  Which was nice.
But the handful of happy hour punters sat facing a giant screen showing the 24-hour news channel.  C'mon, there must be some sport on somewhere.  Or 'Nightmare Neighbours Next Door'.  If anything is going to thoroughly dampen happy hour it's sipping your £2 pint in front of the news in 2020. 

Pub Life in the Acre.

Just a little way up the road, I made a re-visit to the Corner House (22 Sheet Street, Windsor, SL4 1BG).  This is a great pub with an extensive choice of cask and keg beers, as well as giving us the chance to order some lunch to fuel us for the rest of the day.

That'd be the bar, at the Corner House.

Last time I was in Windsor, I described "chaotically crowded pavements".
Couldn't really be much different today...

Queen Victoria enjoys the peace & quiet. 

The final pub of the day involved a fair walk away from Windsor, as we planned to tick off a nearby Berkshire GBG entry.
This involved crossing into Eton, then following the Thames Path, before branching off to Eton Wick.  It was further than it looked...it always is.

A walk of two halves, this wasn't a route I'd describe as pretty once we crossed the motorway into the extended developments of commuter-belt housing that makes up 'greater' Slough.
Just past the village green, we spotted the Barleycorn pub, with another, The Kings Head, almost next door.

The Barleycorn (151 Lower Cippenham Lane, Chippenham, SL1 5DS - web)
This is an unspoilt drinkers pub, with tatty furniture and a general feel that nothing much has changed in the past 30-years.
The beer guide advertises 7 beers usually available but, as is the norm in Covid-ridden 2020, this was reduced to just a couple on our visit.  I ordered an enjoyable pint of Loddon 'Ferryman's Gold' and sat to the side by the pool table, where nothing happened at all during our visit. 
That's shoddy pub blogging, isn't it?

My 2021 Good Beer Guide popped through the letterbox a couple of days after making this trip.  A fashionable late delivery to OX4.
A Hoppy Place makes it's debut appearance, but I'd missed the opportunity to visit new entries The Windsor Trooper and The Swan at Clewer Village.
So that'll be next year's trip to Windsor, when it remains to be seen if the camera-toting tourists have returned to the streets in front of the castle.

A Right Royal Affair

Windsor Pub Explorations

It's been a while since I last joined the throngs of tourists and made a visit to the regal town of Windsor.
And it's fantastically topical at the moment, royal baby and all.

I did start out with a master-plan to stick to the pubs with royal connections in their names.
But being a complete amateur pub-blogger, I was quickly side-tracked by the lure of fine ales in the Corner House.
So apologies - what could have been a  themed post (taking in the Queen Vic, Prince Arthur, Duchess of Cambridge) becomes just another random jaunt around the pubs.The first pub is very royally themed.  I can remember this appearing on the news a year ago, thanks to the cunning marketing of a timely name change...

Prince Harry (8 Market Street, Windsor, SL4 1PB)
This is located in a building which dates back to 1518, first becoming a pub in 1689.  Prior to Prince Harry being invented it was known as the Three Tuns.
On the week of the royal wedding in May 2018 they quickly unveiled the new signage (and a menu including a Megan Markle burger) just prior to the crowds lining the streets.

The Prince Harry, Windsor

A sign on the door advertises local ales from Windsor & Eton Brewery, but disappointingly a 'just settling' label was hung over their 'Hurricane' pump clip.  Leaving a choice of Fullers 'London Pride' or Ringwood 'Fortyniner'.
I don't really know what to make of this pub.  By changing its name and sticking up a picture of Harry on the wall it's essentially a royal theme-pub, designed to bring in the tourists.  I wonder if it works?  

From a Royal family member who's very much trending here and now, we leap back a couple of hundred years for the next pubs namesake.

Queen Charlotte, Windsor

Tough to get a picture of without looming
over someone's outdoor table with camera,
which rarely goes down well.

Queen Charlotte (6 Church Lane, Windsor, SL4 1PA - web)
Queen Charlotte had a tenure on the throne from 1761 until her death in 1818.  Which I've obviously recounted from my general royal knowledge and not just looked up on Wikipedia a few minutes ago.  
This pub was previously the Blarney Stone - a quick glance through whatpub suggests that Windsor has seen its fair share of pub name changes.  

It's actually named after Queen Charlotte Street, which is listed as the shortest street in Britain (51 feet and 10 inches).
I received a friendly welcome and amongst a selection of cask ales along the bar, Windsor & Eton's 'Hurricane' had already settled here.  I sat in the modern refurbished surrounds of the quiet pub, with other punters tucked away in a separate dining area or on the outdoor tables to the front.  I enjoyed the beer, but perhaps the pub is a little too smart, bright and airy for my tastes.

From the Queen Charlotte I headed back down past the castle walls along the spectacular Thames Street, with it's chaotically crowded pavements.

King and Castle (15/16 Thames Street, Windsor, SL4 1PL)

The King in this pub name is Edward VII whose bust is above the entryway to the adjacent passageway.  It's a big Wetherspoon's outlet spread over three floors indoors, plus outdoor seating on a couple of levels too.
No surprises here - a reasonable selection of beers at the best prices of the day, a 'spoons carpet, subtitled news on the TV, and a wide-ranging clientele.
In the nice weather most customers had chosen the garden, so there was plenty of choice of tables and the chance to sit by the first floor window, watching Britain's tourism business boom outside.

'spoons!

At this point I deviated from the theme and skipped looking for pubs with royal references. Instead, with a nose for some fine ales, I walked just beyond the main tourist drag to...

The Corner House (22 Sheet Street, Windsor, SL4 1BG - web)

Yet another pub with a name change in recent years - in this case it used to be the Lime Bar & Grill.
What a brilliant place!
The bar has a line-up of 5 ciders on cask and 10 real ales from the likes of Big Smoke and Tiny Rebel.  From a great selection it was tough to pick, but I opted for a Cloudwater 'Take it from the Top', which was a pretty excellent bitter & hoppy 5% IPA.
With so much choice on cask I didn't even turn my attention to any of the keg offerings, but I'll guess there was a good selection of these as well.
A great pub and probably where you'd find me on a regular basis if I was a Windsor resident.

Beer, Cider & Food - the Corner House, Windsor

Back-tracking towards the castle again, my next chosen stop was almost a neighbour to both the Prince Harry and Queen Charlotte.

Carpenters Arms (4 Market Street, Windsor, SL4 1PB - web)

The Carpenters is a Nicholson's house, which means a decent beer range and some reliable food.

It has entrances on two streets and approaching through the back door I wandered down staircases and through a couple of rooms to reach the bar at the front.
It's quite a cavernous place.

I haven't caught it very well in a picture, but they have a very odd lower-level room the back of which is cell-like with some random display behind metal bars.  

Looking at the pub website, but no explanation forthcoming as to why they
have a cage at the end of one room at the Carpenters Arms.

I grabbed myself a pint of 'Jack the Lad' a pale ale brewed in SW London by By The Horns.
I also decided to refuel here with a hefty plate of their veggie Sunday dinner, which was a fine feed and would keep me going for the rest of the day.

The Carpenters Arms, Windsor.
Turns out that's the back door.

From here I made my way downhill and across the Thames into adjoining Eton.
As a last stop of the afternoon I wanted to call in to Windsor & Eton Brewery's own pub...

George Inn (77 High Street, Eton, SL4 6AF - web)

Despite the crowds on the streets, none of the earlier pubs had been especially busy.  I guess Windsor attracts a lot of tourists who are content to spend their visit taking selfies and hoping to bump into the Queen, rather than patronising the pubs.
The outdoor area of Brown's, down by the river, was an exception and also the George Inn seemed to be doing a roaring trade this afternoon.
It's a good traditional boozer with an L-shaped bar, a few distinct drinking areas and a popular garden to the side.

This is where I found my 'Windsor Baby' beer, the picture of the pump clip being at the top of this post. 
Full circle back to Prince Harry, so a good place to end this afternoons explorations of the town.

The George at Eton