This weekend some friends suggested meeting in the Orpington Liberal Club for a drink. This club has won many CAMRA awards and accepts visitors who are CAMRA members.  I therefore joined CAMRA and met my friends for a couple of beers at the suggested venue. The club is in a large house with a hall attached.  Inside there is a small bar and several tables spread around a brightly lit room.  There were three cask beers on offer and I chose Tonbridge Brewery Coppernob.  It tasted good and had a distinctive flavour that was very similar to the Tonbridge Rustic I had drunk a few week’s earlier.  The website of this club is http://orpingtonliberalclub.co.uk/

The following day, by coincidence, I found myself in another drinking hole with a political link.  I was visiting friends near Rochester, Kent and we had a couple of pints in the Crown Pub.  This was made famous (notorious) recently by the appearance of the UKIP leader, Nigel Farage.  He was accompanied by Mark Reckless, a Tory MP who defected to UKIP in September 2014.  They were both on the campaign for votes for the up-coming by-election.  The pub was quite traditional with good bar staff.  It was quite busy as one would expect for a Saturday night but we easily found a table.  The beer was pretty boring though with Doom Bar being the best of a limited bunch.  Pedigree and Bombardier were also available but I am not keen on these.  The website is http://www.thecrownrochester.co.uk/index.php#

Just to finish off it is worth saying that Rochester High Street is a lovely town centre with lots of history and many old buildings dating back several hundred years.  The town changes dramatically at night and swarms with groups of young people.  Unfortunately the Rochester pubs have not caught up with the standard of the pubs in London.  The King’s Head had no beer.  Another pub close to it just had Doom Bar and London Pride and had an odd smell.  In my experience, many pubs in and close to London that had a similar approach to beer provision closed due to lack of interest.