Princess of Wales, Blackheath  

The Princess of Wales is a Jekyll and Hyde sort of place, during the week it's an excellent local, with three beers - Spitfire, Bombardier and Pride - on the hand pumps, plenty of other interesting beers, decent wines, friendly, attentive service and good value-for-money food. But at the weekends, especially warm summer weekends, it gets mobbed. Its prominent position by the heath, next to the duck pond means it's easy to find and the opportunity for an al fresco pint with a couple of hundred of your mates seems to be an irresistible attraction to the younger locals. The pub has a beer garden, where they do BBQs and there's a pleasant conservatory, but it seems this isn't enough for some. And so we're torn: the relaxed atmosphere of the weekday pub and the effort the management puts in to looking after the clientele elevates this pub into four-pint territory, whereas the summer Saturday nite experience would drop it down to a one. However, on the basis of the weekday performance and the excellent Sunday roasts, we're awarding it a qualified three pints. If it wasn't for the damned heath out front ...

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