The Seven Red Roses, Maiden Place, LOWER FUCKING EARLEY, Reading RG6 3HA.
All ‘information’ in this review is ‘accurate’ as of December 2016.
You know when you’re on the train back from Clapham and you’re heading back into Reading? The Tannoy/public address system announces the stops and not far from home you hear it say, ‘This is Earley” and you make that little joke about how ‘that makes a change, a train being early!’ Yeah? No? Alright, fine.
God. You think you’re so much better than us, don’t you?
Anyway. Earley. It’s just a big housing estate, isn’t it? Well, yeah. The third biggest in Europe, apparently. And so The Seven Red Roses is an estate pub. Something you’d imagine we’d be sniffy about. But you don’t know us all that well then, do you? Tch. And after all this time too.
Location: Maiden Place is in Earley (Lower Earley, we should point out – thanks to the 65 people who wrote in to tell us…). And (Lower) Earley is in the suburbs of Reading. So we can cover this pub, before any pedants out there point out that this website isn’t called Shit & Not Shit Pubs in (Lower) Earley. Anyway, this boozer is smack bang in the middle of a housing estate.
Now, then. Housing estates are shit. We all know that. And terrible pubs are shit. But even the worst pub on a housing estate can be like a little oasis. So when you factor in relativity like that, it’s kind of impossible to truly judge an estate pub. Because, in their context, they’re all great. Does that makes sense…? Course it bloody does.
You can see from the picture up there that you’re literally four seconds from a cashpoint (albeit a murderous American Psycho-type one), fags and one of Berkshire’s worst rated for hygiene curry houses. Perfect!
Drink Selection: Not great, but you get what you expect. Which is ‘pissed’ if you head in for half twelve of a Saturday and leave at about seven like we did. LADSLADSLADS.
Price: Two pints (one Magner’s and one Tribute) came in at less than £7.70. That’s alright, that, isn’t it?
Sports? Aye. Full Sky Sports and BT Sports. Lovely big HD screens dotted around the place too.
Food: They were selling it, but we were booze focused. Burgers looked fine and they sell buckets of chicken wings by the 50. ‘Poultry Genocide’ it’s called and it’s about a tenner. It’s obscene.
Toilets: Fine. Have you ever noticed, though – pubs full of ugly old men never have mirrors? Is that on purpose? Has there been some sort of market research that suggests that seeing themselves as the shambling drunks they are scares or kills old drunk fellas off?
Decor: PWOPA. Look at this fucking carpet…
Chain pub? Yup. Stonegate.
Amount of Men in Their Eighties We Saw Buying Young Attractive Women We Hoped Were Their Granddaughters £65 Bottles of Rose Laurent Perrier Champagne? One.
Beer Garden/Smoking Area: Aye. With terrific views of a giant housing estate.
Events: Monday Sunday night (despite what their website says) is The 7RR’s £2 a head pub quiz and, as the site says they also put on ‘live music, discos, fund-raisers and games nights.’
Punterwatch: Geezers, people in for sport… Mostly just people with no other pub to go to. Or anywhere else to go to other than a Sainsbury’s or balti house full of E. Coli.* These people are trapped in the middle of Europe’s third largest housing estate. The poor, poor bastards…
This, as you’ve seen, is a pub like any other. But what sets it apart is that it’s a haven. Transport it to Reading town centre and most townies would probably drop in for the odd snifter and that’d be that. But for the poor sods living their ‘lives’ in Earley, this place really is a lifeline.
God bless The Seven Red Roses.
*Please note: Apparently someone went around the place with a wet cloth and now it’s legally alright. So please stop writing in to tell us. Christ, you Earley types are precious. Sorry, LOWER Earley types.
Shit & Not Shit Pubs in Reading 
It’s in Lower Earley, not Earley
Could this post be any more offensive to those of us who live in Earley. Fair enough on the pub description, but the comments on the poor folk who live in Earley is, quite frankly, out of order.
Plus there is more to Earley than a “housing estate”. Lower Earley is the main housing estate, whereas Earley itself is a vast place with more to offer than just a housing estate.
Get your facts right
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Trust us, we could have been A LOT more offensive.
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Yeah, there a fucking massive police station and a’ Asda in Earley (Lower) too, get your facts right
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This is in Lower Earley. It’s very important people know that Earley and Lower Earley are different places. Thank you.
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They’re different in so much as an intestine and a lower intestine are different, sure.
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Mmmm I always thought the 7RR was is LOWER Earley not Earley? Backed up by their website being http://www.thesevenredroseslowerearley.co.uk???
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IT’S THE SAME THING.
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Please…..
Firstly it’s in Lower Earley and NOT Earley which comes under Wokingham council and NOT Reading.
Yes you’re right it is an estate pub, one that provides a service for its community. Obviously community is a forgein concept for you.
A local community is a group of interacting people sharing an environment. Unlike some people we actually communicate with our neighbours and not just social media.
I’m sorry you fail to understand that concept but maybe in ivory tower one day a neighbour may actually care what you say.
Then you’ll understand what a community is
The Seven Red Roses is a blessing and YES it is an Oasis in an estate.
Decent food. An decent drink selection (you may need to actually open your eyes to see that)
And yes it looks onto a car park and a Sainsbury. Wow guess what. It’s in the heart of a community NOT stuck in. The middle of nowhere where old facts go to die.
As for the poor hygiene in the restaurant, yes he failed. However he has taken measures and now has 4 stars.
One last thing, are you really someone who travelled to Earley station and happened upon a pub 2 miles away after passing 3 pubs to get there or are you really a disgruntled former local who knows when they aren’t welcome.
One thing we really hate is fools.
Come along to the Roses .
OH AND THE QUIZ NIGHT IS ON SUNDAYS AND NOT MONDAY as this fool quoted .
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Right.
a) No one gives a shit what part of the giant housing estate it’s on. Earley… Lower Early… It’s the same thing. The clue’s in the name. It’s a housing estate bolted onto Reading. It’s a suburb of Reading. Council boundaries don’t lineate locations.
b) We aren’t actually that offensive about the pub which, if you read it calmly, you’d realise. And any digs are clearly jokes. You won’t have read any of the other reviews on this site, but this place actually gets off pretty lightly.
c) It’s lovely that you’ve got a community there. You have to have one. You don’t have anything else. Maybe you can all get together a burn an effigy of us to ward off evil spirits or something.
d) We didn’t criticise the food. So bollocks.
e) You might not have been outside of Earley – sorry, LOWER Earley – but in other pubs? They have far better drinks selections. Again, not that we really had a go at that.
f) You’ve got a restuarant that shut down for having a ZERO STAR hygiene rating and we pointed it out. Somehow we’re the bad guys here?
g) I’m someone who when a friend offers to drive me to and from a pub I’ve never been to before and runs a website that reviews pubs, so I go. And then I review it.
h) The pub’s bloody website says quizzes are on Monday. Did you think we’d stay in the pub for seven days straight to check…?
But yeah – everyone… Go along to The Roses. It’s not a bad pub.
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The restaurant NEVER closed and wasn’t declined a rating
He was issued with 1 star but upon retesting a few days later was awarded 4.
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Who the hell drinks Magners?
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I had a hangover.
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So… it seems unclear. Is it in Earley or Lower Earley?
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Sod off.
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Good God. When house hunting, I specified ‘anywhere in Reading but please not Earley – or Lower Earley, IT’S THE SAME THING’. I did this because it’s got no basic fun things. I now feel even more validated in this decision reading these comments and knowing it’s populated by defensive pedants. And, by the way, I’m not a snob – I currently live on the Oxford Road. But, whilst there’s plenty of scum round there too, I like it. Why? Because, do you know what happens on the Oxford Road?
Things.
Things happen.
This makes it preferable to Earley.
PS This review is not harsh. Read the one about The Queens Arms (Central Reading).
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Love you, Dave.
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You find Oxford Rd preferable to live in than Lower Earley? Bizarre
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You prefer oxford road to lower Earley. Wtf. Hahahaha. That’s like saying you prefer to doggy doo to a half decent steak. Retard
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No, it’s like saying you prefer ‘doggy doo’ to ‘piggy doo’. They’re both shit.
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I’ve read a few of your reviews and I think there brilliant
Don’t worry about the snobs that live in early that don’t want to be mentioned in the same sentence as lower early
Those are the proberly the punters from the George that are happy to spend £4:10 on a pint and sit there discussing boundrys all night and bin collection routes and how they could run this country better
Anyway your doing a great job and it’s funny as fuck
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Ta. You’re very kind/easily pleased.
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Lived in earley 40 + years have drank in the 7rr for over 20 years it’s a good pub to have a laugh thought your review was really funny and pretty spot on and you didn’t slag it off.
PS I live in earley not lower earley sod that 😀 (joke Paul joke )
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Cheers.
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Live near the 7rr, it’s a terrible pub. So bad I prefer walking past it to the poachers
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