BITE user comments - grumpyputs
Comments by grumpyputs
Ezza and I popped in for an early evening mid-week drink - and wished we hadn't.
The place was full of noisy little children, running all over the pub, with drunken screeching mothers and low-life hoodies. A couple were eating chips from the nearby chip-shop - at the bar!
At least four beers were off, including both cask ales and the premium Italian lager, so we were forced to drink Guinness.
The impression is of a rough urban estate pub, but set in the middle of the conservation area of an English village - it's bizarre. We legged-it to the White Hart, after one pint.
31 Mar 2017 07:59
The White Hart, Great Wakering
Hurray!!
The White Hart is finally under the new management of a local married couple, and how the atmosphere of the place has changed. It's now welcoming, warm and friendly. Many of the regulars who were driven away by the former landlord have begun to re-appear.
Food isn't yet available, but we hear that this will change in the New Year.
The whole village wishes Steve & Rachel every success.
12 Dec 2016 12:25
Oh dear!
This friendly village local burned down in October. We hear that re-opening may be well over a year away.
12 Dec 2016 12:15
Yet another lot of new management!
It looks like two guys and a girl, but it's difficult to tell who's who. The are an altogether more pleasant lot, and seem to know what they're doing. Once more, it's food that they're concentrating on. I wish them luck, but with little passing trade and the pub's poor performance over the last three or four years, they have their work cut out, to turn things around.
28 Mar 2015 13:48
Back to the Red Lion again, and enjoyed the hour we spent there. There's a wide range of lagers and a choice of two ciders, but very little in the way of real ale. Perhaps the regulars prefer it that way. Personally, I'd like to see Tim Taylor's or London Pride on sale, as well.
The staff are friendly and the ambience pleasant - the place was actually crowded with regulars on a Wednesday evening, which is more than can be said for the two neighbouring pubs.
28 Mar 2015 13:41
The Anchor is now under new management, although the managing couple are temporary, pending a more permanent tenant. Perhaps the best future for this troubled pub is to convert it to luxury flats, with a new-build block to the rear. There's ample parking space for up to twelve or more flats, and the infrastructure's already in place.
In today's economic climate, Great Wakering just can't continue to have four viable High Street pubs. It's a close call between The Anchor and The White Hart, as to who'll fall first.
15 Jan 2015 17:52
We popped into The Anchor once more, to be told that the landlord and family were on holiday. There was no draught Carling, Stella or IPA, so we legged it yet again.
C'mon Punch Taverns - pull the plug on this lot!
25 Aug 2014 14:58
Another little pub-crawl of Wakering's inns: the Anchor was the third we visited. There was no real ale at all - not a single one! The only lager available was Fosters, and the apologetic young barmaid informed us that Guinness was the only other draught beer available.
This pub has been so badly mis-managed, as to defy belief. As Scott of the Antarctic observed, "Great God, this is an awful place!".
17 Jul 2014 08:06
We went back to The Anchor last week, for a second visit after the 2013 refurbishment.
It was 9.30 pm on a weekday, and we were amazed to see several small children running about the bars, one with a dummy in its mouth. The pub's TVs all showed MTV at full volume, and there was no one behind the bar.
We took one look at the shaven-headed, track-suited clientele, and walked straight out of the place. The people running this pub have managed to turn a silk purse into a sow's ear.
26 Apr 2014 08:40
We did a mini-crawl of three pubs in Great Wakering High Street, and this was by far the friendliest of the three. The landlord greeted us with a smile, and served us immediately. The decor was strangely 1960's, but the music was unobtrusive, the regulars pleasant and the beer good.
25 Aug 2013 13:07
The White Hart, Great Wakering
Lovely-looking pub - all exposed studwork and beams, brass and Toby-jugs. It would be a picture-postcard English village pub, except for the big bald tattooed aggressive and surly man behind the bar, masquerading as a pub landlord.
25 Aug 2013 12:56
This is a rough old estate pub, set within the conservation area of a pleasant village. The early evening atmosphere was unpleasant, with tattooed foul-mouthed shaven-headed yobs shouting over the intrusively-loud rap music. There were uncleared glasses all over the place, and the gent's toilet was filthy. Small children ran around freely, with negligible supervision from parents, seated at the bar.
25 Aug 2013 12:49
Anchor Hotel, Great Wakering
And now The Anchor is boarded-up and mothballed by a Heineken subsidiary, called Star Pubs. The last landlord was a decent man, with lots of experience in the licensed trade. He pulled out; he just couldn’t make a decent living, because of the Draconian trading conditions imposed upon him by the “brewery”.
Will The Anchor be developed for residential use? The Red Lion, just 300m up the High Street, is now a small housing estate.
28 Feb 2019 20:51