Drink 5/5 Decor 4/5 Price 3/5 Atmosphere 4/5 Staff 3/5

Looking into potential destinations for next year’s summer holiday has led to me spending a lot of time in bookshops reading travel guides. I find the ones written for tourists coming to the UK most fascinating, especially the bit where they try to find the quintessential British boozer. If they only had time to review one place and chose The Prince Albert (Rose’s), their readers would come away with a very one-sided view of pubs in this country.

The good news is it would be a positive view rather than a bad one. Walking into the pub, it is clear propping up the bar and chatting to friends and the barman is the norm.

This is pleasing to see because I always prefer to stand and talk rubbish or spread the paper on the bar than sit down and miss the action. But standing around chatting is no good unless you have a nice drink in your hand, thankfully real ale drinkers will not be disappointed at the choice.

Three beers were on when I visited the Woolwich watering hole, so I did what anyone would do in my situation — worked my way along the line. First up was The Red Kite by Wylam Brewery. It was reddish in colour and quite malty, giving it quite a nicely subtle fruity flavour.

My second was a foray into the world of James Bond — slowly poured not stirred — with a pint of DB7 which is fittingly represented with a picture of the secret agent’s Aston Martin on the badge.

I hope to sample the third choice next time — unless the pub does make it into a guidebook and is too packed next time I visit.