The Royal Surrey, Morden

Visited 26/08/26 No cask. Keg offering of Guinness, Fosters, Estrella, Coors, San Miguel, Stella, Hobgoblin Session IPA and a dark fruits cider from Somersby. Decent sized venue with some outside seating at the front. Inside, the bifold doors were thrown open on a pleasant early evening. The front part along the length of the venue is carpeted with regular tables and chairs. There is a raised area in the front right-hand corner hosting a pool table. The bar counter is along the rear wall with a good amount of the punters in sitting on tall stools along the length of the bar counter. Beyond the front carpeted half, the rear part including along the front of the bar counter is bare boarded and seating via a solitary tall table with tall, backed stools otherwise regular tables and chairs. There is a stage area in the rear right-hand corner with a lot of fruit machines on the rear wall beyond the right-hand edge of the bar counter. Plenty of screens tuned into an assortment of sporting action, all absent sound, that provided by an upbeat pop soundtrack.

This pub was known as the Abbot before a name change to the Royal Surrey in 2009. A private members card room and snooker club called the Royal Surrey is located next door so the management there probably have something to do with this pub now. It was a little disconcerting to find a bother of bouncers on the door at 17:00 on Saturday afternoon, but some of the customers looked like they’d caused their fair share of trouble. The interior is vast and there are screens everywhere for showing Sky Sports. A muted replay of the Chelsea v Napoli Champions League game was being shown and the jukebox was blasting out some very loud music meaning that everyone had to shout to be heard. To the rear right of the building is a dartboard and five gaming machines along with a change machine. There is also a pool table and a competition is held every Sunday. The bar is stocked with standard draught and supports two hand pumps. One of these was unused leaving Ruddles as the only ale option, not that I saw anyone drinking anything but lager. There is late opening until 00:00 every night and until 00:30 on Fridays and Saturdays. There is live music every Friday night and there is a meat raffle every Sunday at 16:00. There is also bingo every Wednesday night. The service was friendly, but this isn’t a pub that I will be visiting again in any hurry.