The Queen's Head, Bury St. Edmunds  

While they would probably not thank us for saying so, we can't help feeling that the management of this free house are having a go at creating their own cross-fertilisation of the style of pubs that J. D Wetherspoon and Yates's have spread across the country. There's a selection of locally produced real ales, for one thing (unusually in this city, not any of Greene King's), and an unintimidatingly priced food menu for another. There is also a juke box and a pool table, and a small courtyard/conservatory area for outdoor drinking. Most annoyingly, though, the Queen's Head has a distinct lack of atmosphere, and appears to have the potential for lots of vertical drinking activity (The pub is a fair size, too, with big open spaces that carry noise). Although some degree of smartness of dress is required of evening and weekend customers, on our early Friday afternoon visit, we could already sense the potential for things to turn raucous, with a sprinkling of apparently lonesome, lone, despondent, dependency drinkers among the lads and ladettes. When all's said and done, there are more civilised pubs pretty nearby.

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