After a hard day with your nose to the grindstone sometimes the only way to wind down and cheer up is with an ice cold, amber glass of lager.

Something about the companionship of other after-work drinkers and a few cheeky sherbets can make even the toughest day at the office seem a million miles away.

Except, that is, if you walk through the doors of the Moon on the Hill.

Walking in to the Moon is almost guaranteed to instantly add a layer of misery upon your weary frame.

Its grubby carpets and gloomy interior is only matched by its clientele, mainly grey-faced old soaks wishing away the days until they die while nursing a cheap pint of lager in between popping outside for another roll up cigarette.

Entering the place is akin to kissing a dementor.

Cheery it is not. What this pub and its customers need is a bloody good steam clean.

Having said that I have had many good, booze fuelled nights in this pub.

It is part of the Wetherspoons chain and so, while it suffers from a lack of music, a soulless decor and a propensity to attract hardened, bulbous nosed professional boozers, it makes up for it with a dazzling array of great alcohol, cheap and tasty food and enough room so that you are not sitting next to the table of rowdy men with neck tattoos who have been guzzling Stella since 9am.

It does attract a mix of people from street sweepers to lawyers and it's choice of real ales, spirits and lagers are second to none. Combine that with the price and on paper you should have a winner.

But as pubs in Sutton go, there are far, far better examples of local hostelries.

When you are on a budget or its the end of the month sometimes its worth having to brave a bit of misery.

Just don't expect the moon on a stick.

5-9 Hill Road Sutton, SM1 1DZ 020 8643 1202