Black Horse, Locksbottomback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
just wondred if anyone could tell me does or did a guy called ben watson and his partner sue wright run this pub??
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A wonderfully chavy pub where you can go to watch men in their early 20s punch there dads. Or alternatively you can watch people get their ears partially chopped off. Luckily the A&E is only over the road and plenty of nurses drink in there.
DTC80 - 25 May 2007 13:54 |
Yet another who has returned to this pub after a long absence. To be fair I was pleasantly surprised, the pub it seems does go out of its way to stock a variety of real ales. The decor is a bit bland but I can put up with that - will re-visit.
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As an example of typical CAD and manufactured PubCo type of place, this aint bad. Beer was pleasant enough, served by smiling, happy person and it can be drunk in comfort. At atmosphere was relaxed and the other punters were inconspicuous. (it was sunday, however).
Food choice looked normal nuked pub grub but then you probally would look elsewhere for fine dining. 6/10(though not Chapter One at the top of the road)
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Well I hate to say it but I drank here about 22 years ago (bugger....showing my age now, bad move) and I say plenty of chnages. It has been fairly stable for the past few years so we wandered back in for a few pints. Youngs at £1.25....we stayed till it closed :) One of those pubs that can be quite busy one minute and then dead the next. However, it's clean, does decent beer (not that lager chemical rubbish) Chiswick, Adnams, etc and the staff are friendly (even if the staff don't actually realise what beers are on tap). You could do a lot worse that the Black Horse....can you say British Queen?
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There will come a time in the not too distance future when Orpington will be denoted on all maps with a large burberry hat. No words, no streets, no parks, no forests – no denotations of any sort, just one fat symbol that the whole place has finally been swallowed by chavery. You can not go down its main high street or walk through its dreary suburbs without bumping into gangs of four foot high retards in tracksuits, bumfluff lip hair and a collective argo level that would disturb a platoon of Zulu warriors. And if you don’t meet these constantly spitting and staring charmers you`ll probably be mowed down by a haggle of 15yo single mothers throwing prams around the kerb while chain smoking and threatening to smash “Traceys” gob in. A couple of weeks in this place and you will honestly start to believe that evolution is going backwards.
However, there are some places which the scabby tentacles of Chavness havent quite throttled to death – the unfortunately named Locksbottom being one of them. It still is slighty surprising however, to find that the Black Horse – the main pub in the area - isnt all that bad, despite its proximity to suburban hell.
On the inside there is though a fair amount of schizophrenia at play: some sections are rather boring reproductions of a Spoons (the shiney, glitz bar and largish cheap panelled area to the right of the entrance), others are reminiscent of an oldie mans watering hole (battered, old fashioned tables/chairs to the back) and still other parts a fairly odd attempt to be recreate a swanky bar (glamorous lampshades, vases and plush sofas to the left). I`m presuming this neatly partitioned chaos is part of a plan, but whatever the case, any section you plant your backside in will be comfortable and as mentioned, distinctive even in some cases. The beer too is pretty stand out for a suburban pub, with below average prices spread across a pretty good tap selection, both on the lager and to a lesser extent the bitter/ale front. The atmosphere is also reasonable, though of course on a Friday and Saturday night it does begin to resemble a city centre outlet, with mandatory chavs, teenagers and well, wankers.
And really its this slight – sometimes very slight – feeling that the Black Horse is nudging towards chavy/Spoons blandness (supplemented by a spoons food menu and the mild lager domination at the taps) that stops me from giving it anymore than a slightly above average 7/10.
pgazz - 20 Nov 2005 17:12 |
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