Woodies Free House

Used to come here when I was at college… Good beer, great atmosphere… Well worth a visit.

It has just opened its new verandah (posh patio) and it has a new outside barbecue. It increases the seating space and is nice to sit outside in summer. The beer choice is as good as ever and the interior is still idiosyncratic.

This nice little pub is quite hidden from the sight of the usual pedestrian. However, when I’ve found it, I enjoyed a fine lunch and friendly service. It was more than enough to have a nice time and to visit again.

Fun place with an excellent selection of ales. Food is home grown, quite good and reasonably priced. Friendly staff and great pub atmosphere!

Excellent pub off the beaten track. Well kept real ales. Homecooked, good value food. Friendly and helpful staff. Top notch!

If you visit Woodies’ website, it will tell you that it’s ‘New Malden’s Best Kept Secret.’ It’s so secret, that we had to phone to find it. Boy, are we glad we did.
The superb experience began with the aforementioned phone call. The assistant manager (hi Ben) was so impressed with our determination to visit his establishment, he’d chosen two of the seven (I think) available real ales for us, poured them before we arrived, and bought them for us. He made us drool with a description of last weekend’s beer festival (and it was a proper festival at that, with loads of beers on tap), and the brochure from it. We couldn’t have been made to feel more welcome.
The pub is indeed hard to find it is in a sports’ ground, but not the LSE sports’ ground (important to note it’s where we looked first). There is a large car park behind it, and the building is a single story oddity it doesn’t hugely resemble a pub. Once you walk in though, your eyes will be assailed with stuff.
The pub is football themed, but not in the kind of eight-​million tellies blaring the Chelsea game at full volume. Whilst there are a couple of LCD televisions, indeed, showing the footy, they are not hugely obstrusive. Instead, what makes this a football pub is the sheer amount of memorabilia on the walls, ceilings, tables, bar indeed, every available space. It is, even for a non-​football fan like me, fascinating.
The beer is superbly kept. I had a couple of pints of one Redemption’s offerings (I had tried their beer before when they first opened at a beer tasting). It was just right the temperature was spot on (just a little below room temperature), and it was clear and tasty. This is clearly a pub that values its real ales.
The staff all of them (even those not working but using the pub as their local) were amazingly friendly, kind, funny and welcoming (if a bit squeaky you know who you are! mwhahaha).
There is a small beer garden/​smokers’ corner. It is neat and tidy, though not amazingly interesting (compared to the pub’s interior, especially).
This is a pub I will certainly be visiting again if I lived a bit closer, it would be a pub I’d be happy to call my local.

At the risk of ruining one of my favourite locals by making it too popular, I do think I should sing the praises for Woodies.
The real ales, of which there are several frequently changed guest ales, are always served in pristine condition, and show that the landlady drinks beer as opposed to wine or lager.
As previously mentioned the décor can be best be described as ‘unusual’, but the welcome is warm, lunchtime (no evening, except frozen pizza) food is of excellent qualityand with good portions.

Finding this award winning pub was a real adventure, wandering down quiet residential streets… as good as lost before finally seeing a sign pointing down a track which leads to the pub.
The décor is striking. Some might call it cluttered but the combination of beer glasses, sporting pictures and programs, ties, old postcards and other assorted paraphernalia pleased my eyes no end. Lots to look at.
I saw a cider and 6 ales (including 3 I had never had before), everything I drank tasted good, especially the mild.
This feels like a real community pub. and that community contains a few characters, particularly at the external smoking area out back.