No. 63 The Watergate Inn

Visited on 7/7/11. This pub is built adjacent to the racecourse, so it lives a double life. On race days it will be packed to the hilt, and the rest of the time it lies quiet. Very quiet. In fact, when we arrived, it was empty. Also, there didn’t appear to be any sign of initiatives underway aimed at attracting punters in between meetings – no bands or quizzes advertised for example. Perhaps the race days generate sufficient income and they don’t have to try the rest of the time. There are certainly plenty of them in the calendar these days. It’s an attractive building from the outside, but when you walk through the door, it all looks a bit shabby. We sat in a sort of bench-seated alcove. The seats were broken and the table was sticky. However, there is one major thing that rescues this place to some extent and that’s the ale - just a single  handpump on the bar, but it was dispensing the highly acceptable Titanic Sundeck – a dry, hoppy summer beer. Most pleasant. We almost stayed for a second round in fact. Almost.