The Three Guineas, Reading

On a final visit (probably) before I retire (definitely) to the company office in Reading, I let the train take the strain...
...on the way back to Reading station for the train home I was in plenty of time so couldn't resist popping into the station pub The Three Guineas.

IKB's magnificence...

This magnificent grade 2 listed building was built in 1840, by the Great Western Railway (GWR) man himself Isambard Kingdom Brunel, not originally as a pub or a railway hotel - it was built as the Great Western Railway's central ticket office.

The name of the pub is a reference to the prize money offered in a public competition announced by the GWR in the August 1904 edition of The Railway Magazine.  The competition was initiated by Sir James Inglis the then GWR General Manager, to name an express train, which ran 245 miles non-stop from London to Plymouth, quite a feat in those days (as well as today).

The winning name was chosen by Sir James Inglis  as 'The Cornish Riviera’, apparently combining two entries received, The Riviera Express and The Cornish Riviera Limited.  

Despite the new modern station having been redeveloped around it in recent years, the building still manages to look imposing despite the less than sympathetic modernist station architecture it is now surrounded by.

Brunellian versus Grimshawlian architecture....(image Wikipedia)

The Three Guineas, sits sensibly and calmly amongst  all this modern mishmash of architecture.   The grand front entrance is adorned with a classic station canopy which now shelters customers using the outside tables, and still displays signs that direct the way to railway station related locations that no longer exist...

Signs of old railways....

Inside, the elegance of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s old Great Western continues, high ceilings with plaster friezes, fluted square columns, and a wooden cased four-sided GWR clock hanging from the ceiling...

Elegance from a past age...'Gods Wonderful Railway' just visible on the tiled area behind the bar...

There were quite a few customers on this late Wednesday afternoon, all undoubtedly railway travellers, luggage in tow, grabbing a drink or bite to eat, passing the time reading a book, before it was time for their train.  Despite the ebb and flow of travelling customers, the sheer scale of the pub still made it feel quiet and tranquil.

At the bar there was the full range of traditional Fullers beers, plus one or two of their new ones...so I had one of those...

Dark Star Hophead - new Fullers beer...

The Dark Star Hophead was a good pint...

Marble effect table tops free of beer mat clutter...

I spent a very pleasant half hour drinking my beer in this calming  environment from a past age, and, looking through the window on to the station platforms,  could just imagine the smoking and hissing Great Western steam locomotives standing there in earlier times...

Window onto the station platform...

....but probably not like this one...

Not 'The Cornish Riviera'....

I could have happily stayed longer, and was in two minds whether to have another beer as I returned to the bar with my empty glass, but then was brought back to reality when I saw that the train departure screen was showing a train for Southampton leaving from platform 3 in a few minutes time...

...so leaving the past glories of the GWR behind...I ran for it....

Pub photo - another busy day as the delivery of beer casks arrives in the GWR goods shed...

The Drift Inn, Beaulieu Road Station, Hampshire

I’m not totally sure this was ever a railway pub in the proper sense, but it sits right by the small Beaulieu Road Station on the Waterloo to Weymouth line about halfway between Southampton and Bournemouth. 

By the same argument I could include any pub near to any railway station but my excuse  here is the remoteness of this spot, except for a row of cottages and the adjoining hotel there is nothing else for miles around.

Beaulieu Road Station, Drift Inn and Beaulieu Hotel

The railway station is also about halfway between Beaulieu and Lyndhurst, but it was not built to serve either community. It was built in 1847 by the Southampton and Dorchester Railway, as a private railway station for Lord Montague of Beaulieu in return for him allowing the railway to pass over his land. 

The pub used to be called the Beaulieu Road Inn and as far as I am aware it has never had a ‘railway’ name.

The name 'Drift Inn’ now associates the pub with the the New Forest ‘drifts’ when the New Forest ponies are rounded up. The pub is owned by the neighbouring Beaulieu Road Hotel  and is an L shaped single storey building with stone floors and a beer garden overlooking the forest heathland at the rear.  The pub serves Ringwood Brewery and a guest real ale and provides a range of lunchtime and evening food.