Which bar in Kingston has a 25 per cent student discount, magazines from When Saturday Comes to MacWorld, and WIFI access?  The answer, surprisingly enough, is the bar of the Rose Theatre, Kingston.

Redecorated and relaunched as the Culture Café earlier this year, it would be hard to mistake the theatre bar for any other Kingston venue.  The brutalist architecture of bare concrete walls and exposed metal piping is offset by pot plants and a flower on every table. 

The high ceiling and massive plate glass windows make it light and spacious – or cold and empty, depending on your mood – but the less than scenic view is Wagamama chefs over the road taking their fag breaks.

The Culture Café strives hard to live up to its name, with an impressive array of magazines ranging from BBC History to Glamour, and iPod User to Time Out, as well as the national broadsheets.  Regularly changing art exhibits decorate the walls, while regular free jazz concerts lend the stark space a more bohemian feel. 

There are scrabble, chess and draughts sets, and if you pick your day you can even indulge in a little star-spotting.  Is that Sir Peter Hall, founder of the Royal Shakepeare Company, over there?  Or Nasty Nick Cotton from EastEnders at the bar?  Or Fawlty Towers’ Prunella Scales sitting behind you?

The bar is more of a place to sip wine than down a pint. Wine starts at £12.95 a bottle, before the student discount. The beers are bottled, costing £3 upwards. And for £3 you can enjoy a glass of seasonal spicy mulled wine.

If you want lunch, the range of pre-prepared sandwiches include minted land, brie and cranberry, chicken tikka panini or roast beef baguette. 

If you are more in the mood for a mid-afternoon break, the home-made cakes and fair trade coffees, starting at £1.90, make a nice snack.
The Culture Café is trying hard to be an all-day venue, rather than just catering for the pre-performance crowd.  

For students it probably works best as a quiet place to lose yourself in a magazine or have a civilised game of scrabble over a glass of wine.

And given that the university is one of the biggest investors in the Rose Theatre, the 25 per cent student discount means that even the least theatrically-inclined student can get something in return for their money.

The Culture Café is a five minute walk from the Penrhyn Road campus at 24-26 High Street Kingston, and is open from 10am Monday to Saturday.