location:

Epping Forest

address:

Paul's Nursery Road, High Beach, IG10 4AE

phone:

0871 984 3910*
* calls cost 10p/minute, click here for more about 0871 numbers.

how to find it:

Not particularly close to any form of public transport, although you could walk here in 30-40 minutes or so from Loughton tube. Leave the station and continue ahead. Take the left fork, up Old Station Road, and when you reach the High Road, cross over to the right, turning left up High Beech Road almost immediately. Follow this to the end, and continue ahead as the road becomes, first, Smarts Lane, and then a road named Earls' Path, into the forest. Continue ahead at the Robin Hood roundabout, then take the right fork, Nursery Road, which is signposted for High Beach. You'll find the pub on the right after a bit longer. It's a not a short trek from Loughton tube - about a 30 minute walk in all, but there's not any regular public transport nearer.

click here for a larger map

opening times:

Mon-Sat 11:00-23:00
Sun 11:00-22:30*
* opening times can change, please check with the pub before organising important events.

picture of Kings OakA decent enough watering hole bang in the middle of Epping Forest, at a location which has long been a day-trip destination for Eastenders and Suburban Essexites. The pub has a large, lushly green outdoors drinking area, with more outdoor seating at the front, opposite the main rambling sandy area that gives High Beach its name, and where there is also a shellfish stall and a snack bar and grill. The pub's own food menu looks more than passable, too, although we didn't sample anything. Unusually for a pub, the Kings Oak has a swimming pool. (A memory of a safety campaign far from here, warning of the dangers of drinking and swimming' advises, "Beer doesn't kill people, water does!", springs inevitably to mind.) The pub itself is reasonably spacious, with an attractive wood-beamed interior, a pool table tucked away in a corner, and a generally easy-going atmosphere. Disappointingly, the two hand pumps for real ale were both out of service when we visited. There is a fairly hectic calendar of entertainment: Saturday nights alternate between a live band and a karaoke evening (prizes for best and worst performers), and there are also frequent cabaret and comedy shows, some of which might just be in fairly questionable taste, we suspect. People evidently drive out here from miles around (there's a sizeable car park). Although it can possibly get a little too busy for comfort here at times (depending on when you arrive, this might mean families with kids, walkers or members of motor biking fraternities), there is a lot of space. While there may be a few points that irritate (an insistence on outdoor drinkers using plastic glasses', and the poor condition of some of the garden furniture), as edge-of-town Essex pubs go, there are far worse.

reviewed:
15/10/2005
reviewed by venichka
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