Rochester Castle, Stoke Newington, London

Went there yesterday for the first time in years, hasn't changed much.
As others have commented, the service is very slooooow, four behind the ramp and only one, the duty manager, seemed to know what she was doing.
The beer was in good nick, and £2.15 for both Oakham JHB and Kelham Island Pale Rider, no complaints about that. However the place was littered with glasses, bottles , plates and cutlery. It was also populated by Stokie's more '' interesting '' characters.

Dec 2009 update

Came here for the Wetherspoon's beer festival last month and was pleasently surprised. There were some very nice beers and the service was quick this time...so I am adding a star

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May 2009

Not so obviously a Wetherspoons by the layout but very much a Wetherspoons based on the clientele. I hate using the term ‘old mans pub’ because its not the nicest term to use and some of my favourite pubs would fall into that category, but that’s the term that most people will understand. If someone knows a nicer way to conjure this image please let me know.

I was impressed by the range of ales and the 99p courage best bitter. I was not impressed by the service. I would rather pay a bit more and not have to wait for over 5 minutes to get my drink.

Bit of trivia for you – there has been a pub on this site since 1702. Originally the Green Dragon, which is a name I prefer, but the bloke who built the current incarnation was from Rochester so the new, less mythical, name was born. Longevity does not neccesarily mean quality.

This pub, is amazing. Very friendly staff, was happy to help and very polite, when we had a wake, (after a funeral) in there, very big, and spacious, good family pub. Located on Stoke Newington High Road, oppisite the old Woolworths Store, (now Iceland)

Traditional local pubs are few and far between nowadays, done in by changing demographics and consumer expectations, cheap continental booze drunk at home, and the most recent nail in the coffin, the smoking ban instigated by our puritanical left wing rulers.

Of course, there are still plenty of customers for the traditional local pub, but nowadays they have to shuffle further from home, grumbling under their breath all the way, to what I would term a “super-local”.

The Rochester is the poster child of super-local pubs. Bigger than the traditional local, but like a traditional local there is a mixed bag of punters depending on time of day, day of the week and season. The foundation of the Rochester’s clientele is the all day drinker, typically male, whose lifestyle is made possible, I surmise, by Britain’s generous state pensions and job seekers allowances, coupled with the fiercely competitive pricing policy that Tim Martin has followed throughout the Wetherspoon estate.

Nicely ornamented original interior. Value for money Wetherspoons fare is served.

Once whilst dining at the Rochester on a midweek evening, a fight broke out amongst a large group of fellow diners, of mixed age groups and both genders, at a neighboring table. Stools flew across the room. Blows were traded. Sensibly, the staff retreated to safety behind the bar, called plod, who arrived quickly to restore order.

It goes to show that the other British local pub tradition, the ongoing, simmering, typically family feud, is alive and well in the new generation of super-locals.

The Rochester Castle is definitely the “old man’s pub” of Stoke Newington. Being a Wetherspoons it has a wide range of inexpensive real ales, lagers and food that appeals to this demographic. If this is what you like, then it’s five stars all the way. But I wouldn’t come in here by myself as some of the blokes can be really sleazy. I have no idea how the staff put up with it!

But if you don’t mind a bit of bum groping from some of the sleazier old men, then as others say this is a proper old boozer where you’ll feel at home with your pint and a paper!

Completely brilliant pub in stoke newington, full of local characters such as Stokey De Niro and that The Count. Never any girls in here, just a place for men to drink at incredibly good prices (one pound seventy nine for a pint of great real ale!). The food is obviously terrible micro waved wetherspoons-tastic, but the beers are great, and the atmosphere is cool. I’ve had lots of great and fun evenings out here, watching the staff battle with the drunks and eating bad curry whils drinking several pints of “magic mushroom mild” or “bonkers conkers”. As it’s a real ale pub you can also ask to try out small samples of each ale on offer.
There’s also a beer garden out back AND apparantly the sex pistols played their first ever gig there when it was all different.

My new favourite Weatherspoon. This place is literarly home to a great deal of people in Stoke Newington. It’s got an incredible local feel to it, but without being intimidating or nasty.
What I like most though is the layout of the building. Lot’s of different spaces and a large outdoor area with tree’s and a cat.

i go there to meet friend who like cheap beer,which is understandable.the one thing i would like to be in the weatherspoons training . would be the words hello.hi. please. thankyou. as you never here it in this pub.and the food needs a lot to be desired.

This is a Wetherspoons pub, so many of you will not even enter the review, let alone the premises. For the rest, this pub has always been a pub, not a cinema or an office, and it’s a very nice pub indeed, with listed plasterwork (naked women and pelicans) a conservatory and a garden for those all important cigarette breaks. Lots of nice artwork about the local area, with the writers and poets who lived round here. The food is very good value, particularly the curry night Indian meals, which are about a fiver including a drink (now including guinness), and the afternoon fish and chips that arrives with bread and tea for £3 10, which is perfect if you’re having a late lunch or an early dinner.
The only thing that may put you off is the huge number of old men who treat it like a social club and give you a chilling glimpse of a possible future that should be avoided at all cost.

This is a pub where the regulars from the neighborhood come, those who don’t live far.
That’s why there are always people but the place is big and it is never full.

On the week end, the clientele change a bit because it is open later than the others pub in the area.

If you are lucky, you could finish your night having fun thanks to their Karaoke nights.
Classics are mixed with the last hits so don’t be surprised to see a grand-father and then a student. Drinks are on a regular basis and the staff is welcoming.

That kind of place is perfect for the end of a night outside with some friends « happy » .