real ale

The Pubs Of Leicester

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Arriving at the grand Victorian Leicester station it is only a few steps into The Parcel Yard, run by Steamin’ Billy Brew Co and a welcome sight with a high ceiling, memorabilia and worn sofas as well as a fine pint.
It was probably a bit early in the trip to visit The Globe, established in 1720 and serving local brews from Everards including the classic ‘Tiger’ (4.2% copper ale). With an historic but comfortable interior, excellent beer and location it is probably as near to George Orwell’s ‘ideal pub’ The Moon Under Water as you could find. High praise indeed.

Meanwhile over on the other side of the city centre the Phoenix Arts Centre have real ale on tap unobtrusively holding its place amongst the café bar surroundings. Nearby is The Musician pub; the one room goes back a long way to form an intimate but still spacious venue – home to a variety of music most days. The hall of fame side wall is a challenge to identify the many faces (this may require a bit of updating to reflect the current stars?). The real ale offering is limited but given that music is the priority there was enough choice for the thirsty.

The Sir Robert Peel is another long established Everards pub, comfortable and reassuringly dark as the rain fell on a March afternoon. Nearby outside the window there is an enormous student accommodation block, jarring with the timeless ambience of the pub building. The very drinkable ‘Golden Hop’ (3.5% “…A refreshing, zesty beer..”) brought a taste of spring.

Further along the road and very close to the De Montfort University was The Bowling Green, an old building recast as a fairly typical Stonegate house, aiming to please everyone with some sports screens, quiz, extensive food and a clientele of all ages (but mainly students?). There was commitment to real ale too, with Marstons ’61 Deep’ 3.8% Pale ale. (61 metres is the depth of the well at the Brewery…).

In the same area is the memorably named Two-Tailed Lion, with a distinctive modernist interior and hidden casks of many real and craft ales including Vocation Brewery’s session IPA ‘Heart & Soul’ (4.4%). Football fans began arriving for pre-match drinks here and especially later at The Kings Head, some drinking a pint of Small World Beers ‘Home from Holme’ 4.0% (A Summer Pale, “with punchy citrus and fruit flavours”). It was a heady atmosphere – supporters were mixed in their predictions but Leicester City won 4-0 to end a sequence of poor results.

A brief taste of what was available in Leicester; each pub had something to offer but The Globe is the undoubted jewel for the real ale fan…

https://leicester.camra.org.uk/

The Pubs Of Gravesend

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A fast train from St Pancras soon brings you to Gravesend; on the south bank of the Thames estuary it may not have obvious tourist sites but there is plenty of attractions for the beer enthusiast as well as some hidden history. One of the prime pub sites has to be The Three Daws, possibly the oldest pub (1400s) in Kent with its labyrinthine rooms (after three visits we still couldn’t easily find the exit), unlevel floors, waterside sun terrace and good food it was an excellent start to the trip. A pint of Maidstone Musket Brewery Golden Ale 3.8% ‘Fife and Drum’ set the tone for the quality of beer we would find, described as ‘…An ale which is akin to taking a refreshing stroll in the garden of England…..’. Indeed.

‘The air was dark above Gravesend…condensed into a mournful gloom…‘, in the novel ‘Heart Of Darkness’ Joseph Conrad described the aspect of the Thames from this coastline with foreboding but he may have been cheered by a pint of Oakham Citra, the 4.2% easy-drinker that it is always a pleasure to find behind a bar, this time in the Rum Puncheon, again with a welcoming atmosphere and a sun terrace.

Luckily so many places seem to have a micropub – The Compass Alehouse was converted from an estate agents in 2014 and follows the template of no bar, a small walled outdoor space, convivial regulars (human and dogs) and the treat of having ale dispensed visibly straight from the barrel.

A good strike rate so far but there was more to come – next to the railway cutting The Jolly Drayman has the feel of a village community pub, with its older clientele in the low ceilinged bar area, fortunately with a discrete TV to keep up to date with the Cricket World Cup Final (which at this point in the match was not looking too good…). The walled garden has two personable cats and a covered area (from nowhere it suddenly rained??) to drink a nice pint of Dark Star Hophead (3.8%).

Having been tipped off by one of the bar staff in the Three Daws we spotted the Masonic Hall with stairs leading to the cellar micro-ish pub ‘The Three Pillars’. What a find! – like walking down into the Winchester Club in TV’s Minder the place was buzzing but relaxing; the beer was excellent – Gravesend brewer Iron Pier’s Perry St Pale (3.7%) and Cast Iron Stout(4.7%) with the option of half pint tankards too.

Potentially the town of Rochester with its cathedral and castle looked like a better real ale destination but a quick visit revealed that the jewel in the crown was The Coopers Arms, with its landlord list back to 1542, feature-filled terrace (was that a Robert Maxwell gnome?) and a very refreshing cask of Thwaites Wainwright, the 4.1% ‘exquisitely lovely’ golden ale. There may be other town hostelries of this standard but we didn’t find them on our short survey, so it was back to Gravesend for a final pint at the Three Daws (as many of the others didn’t open on a Monday).

Honorary mention to Wetherspoons for their breakfasts and an effective conversion of a shop into the Robert Pocock – commemorating the pioneering printing work and historical recording by this son (1760 – 1830) of Gravesend. There is also the world’s oldest iron pier, the burial place of Pochahontas and the story of Gunther Pluschow – the only prisoner of war to escape from Britain and return home in 1915 – via Gravesend.

https://gdv.camra.org.uk/

The Pubs Of Ramsgate

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In a far corner of Kent, the seaside town of Ramsgate has an interesting hidden history and some welcoming hostelries for the discerning ale enthusiast.
Wetherspoons have done a superb job to create their largest UK outlet The Royal Victoria Pavilion ‘…A striking example of seaside architecture, this grade II listed building (the former dilapidated pavilion) had been one of the most at-risk Victorian/Edwardian buildings in the land….’ and whatever your feelings about the pub chain’s dominance it is a very pleasurable place to drink, with dedicated staff, efficient service and an outdoor upstairs large terrace along with downstairs tables almost on the sandy beach.

Meanwhile further into the town you can have a well-kept pint at The Hovelling Boat Inn, including choice offerings from local brewer Gadd’s. It is a micropub with no bar but table service and some outside seating in a courtyard. Scotch egg and pickles and usually pies complement the fine summer ale.
Hop onto the frequent ‘loop’ bus and arrive in the neighbouring town of Broadstairs, getting out next to the Mind The Gap railway themed micropub, the £3 a pint much cheaper than many of the train tickets adorning the walls. It has good sofas and a large choice of barrels clearly on display behind the bar.

Back in Ramsgate there are several bars and eateries overlooking the impressive ‘Royal’ walled harbour, with a surviving Dunkirk evacuation boat and a decaying concrete slope where prototype hovercrafts were launched from. One of these is The Goose, part of the Stonegate chain, and trying hard to draw customers from Wetherspoons. They were the only pub to give 10% CAMRA discount and with very friendly service, a pool table and four large pictures of Karl Marx, Queen Victoria, John Le Mesurier and Brenda Blethyn to give a good quizzer’s connection question (Answer: they all lived in Ramsgate!)

The find of the trip was the Ravensgate Arms up in the town, an unassuming exterior giving way to a stripped back and comfortable small pub, with superb beer and a satisfyingly obscure choice of music on the playlist. Also an honourable mention to the Royal Harbour Brasserie, at the end of the long harbour wall its location and the faded coastguard chic of the exterior and balmy sea air out on the terrace provide a suitable backdrop for a pint of Adnams Mosaic…

http://www.thanet-camra.org.uk/
https://www.ramsgatebrewery.co.uk/

The Pubs Of Hull

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Hull will be ‘UK City Of Culture’ in 2017 and so there are many ongoing renovations and widespread replacement of paving stones. The free museums (including one that featured the history of the city from The Big Bang, via Romans and a life-size woolly mammoth), impressive central church and waterside developments are all in place, so what about the pubs?

The Lion And Key feels welcoming; there is an impressive array of handpumps along the high bar, plenty of old signs decorating the walls and behind the bar as well as the high ceiling covered with old pump clips and beermats. ‘White Rose Original Blonde’ and ‘Hilltop Blonde’ (both 4%) were very drinkable golden ales and ‘Summer Solstice'(3.8%) from Derbyshire’s Raw Brewery has a citrus flavour. This was probably the best pub of the visit, but the nearby Wm Hawkes was fine too; converted sympathetically from a printer’s workshop it has a good range of ales, served in handled glasses. Great Newsome Brewery ‘Pricky Back Otcham'(4.2%) is a tasty, clear golden ale (and a local name for a hedgehog?).

In the same area there was Ye Olde White Harte with the room where plotters met before the English Civil War…and Ye Olde Black Boy, hosting a “socialist meeting” in its upstairs room and providing some very nice locally sourced pork pies and Wye Valley ‘Hereford Pale Ale’.

Venturing away from the River Hull area we found The Polar Bear with its architecturally rare ceramic bar and less rare Sharp’s 4.2% ‘Atlantic’ to drink while enjoying the live music. It is on the edge of a newer road of bars and eateries, bustling on a Tuesday evening!

Following directions through an unpromising non-residential road, you eventually reach The Whalebone, a cosy pub steeped in industrial tradition. With a darts match, free refreshments, cheap beer, a raffle (I won first prize!) and Olympic cycling on a discreet TV it was a comfortable and hospitable place to be and Hull CAMRA Pub Of The Year in 2015.

As well as these and many more pubs, Hull has three Wetherspoons, including The William Wilberforce, commemorating Hull’s anti-slavery campaigner.

Another celebrated resident was the poet Philip Larkin who described Hull as ‘isolate city spread alongside water’; it definitely does have an individual history and character, of which the pubs seem to be a significant part.

http://www.hull.camra.org.uk/

The Pubs of Derby

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Derby has been referred to as ‘The Real Ale Capital of the UK’, so it had to be worth a trip to see what the offering is compared with Cambridge. Initial research showed there are many highly regarded pubs within walking distance in the centre area and spread through the city.

The Flowerpot is a pub with three large rooms and a terrace, featuring music on many evenings. There is plenty of beer choice, a pint of their excellent Black Iris Sunflower (4% Golden Ale) was very easy to drink, especially to accompany their in-house ‘gurkha’ curries on Tuesday evenings.

So the standard was set high from the start, but where to next? Given Derby’s links with trains it seemed logical to head for the station area. In amongst some railway workers cottages the Brunswick pub can be found, with its interesting interior and own brewery, White Feather (3.6% pale session beer) and Triple Hop (4% Bitter) were superb examples produced on site.

Around the corner to the Alexandra Hotel, Derby CAMRA pub of the year 2015 and I was beginning to sense there was something a bit special about these places, apart from the excellent selection of beers and CAMRA member discounts on top of cheap prices (compared with Cambridge), there seemed to be a real buzz and atmosphere.
The pubs were busy with a varied clientele; there were fans on the way to the match, people who had just finished work and discerning diners especially in the Exeter Arms, a free house with ‘Dancing Duck’ beers among many others and a formidable food reputation. Also worth a mention Ye Olde Dolphin Inne (dating back to 1530) has small rooms and original beams and the nearby Silk Mill Ale and Cider House has a mural on the side illustrating the 1833 Silk trades lock out, part of the origin of the Labour movement.

This visit was to a fraction of the 25 pubs on the CAMRA ‘Real Ale Trail’. As well as all of these delights Derby sustains three large Wetherspoons, the most notable being the Babington Arms, featuring an electronic ‘scoreboard’ of the varied beer range.

Derby Cathedral may have been closed for refurbishment, but luckily the pubs were open and welcoming….

http://www.derbycamra.org.uk/derby-pubs/