I see someone's already mentioned Witherspoons.

Maybe we're luckier than some, but our one in Harlow, in the old Labour Exchange, is pretty good. Beer starts below £1 a pint (Shepherd Neame Spitfire), good large non-smoking section next to a wall of random old books. And the foods reasonable too.

No live music true enough, but no canned music either - and more often than not I find I run into local folkies any time I drop in.

(And the beer in the British Legion in Waltham Abbey, where there's a folk club on Mondays, is cheap too; as it is in the Thursday folk club in Bishop's Stortford.)