The Retreat,Reading

A back-street free house in a Victorian mid-terrace off the Kings Road in east Reading, run by independent licensees who took it on in 2019 to keep its character intact. It is a cask-ale specialist, rotating micro-brewed beers alongside cider and Continental bottled beers, and appeared in CAMRA's very first Good Beer Guide in 1974. The pub is best known for live music, with regular jazz and blues nights and a long-running free Sunday jazz session, plus community traditions including an annual pickled-onion competition. Two small rooms and a single bar keep it intimate, and it is one of the last surviving mid-terrace corner pubs in the town. It stands among Victorian terraced housing a short walk from the Cemetery Junction end of the town centre, with no kitchen and the emphasis firmly on beer, cider and music.