My latest book, A Pub For All Seasons, is about a year-long search for the perfect pub. It started off as a post-pandemic pub crawl and morphed into a fascinating personal journey as I discovered how pubs’ moods shifted during the year.
For instance, the atmosphere of a snug country boozer with log fire dancing in the grate during the colder months changes when the sun is high and the days long. Then we shift into the beer garden where the ale in our glasses is as golden as the day. The moods of those who visit also alter, from the quiet thoughtful souls contemplating life during the autumn to people becoming more chatty, relaxed and chilled on a gloriously sunny day.
I visited over 60 pubs for the book, but I’ve probably been to more than 3,000 since my debut at the age of 15. Here are 32 you might want to hunt out and uncover.
Yorkshire and the Humber
Waiting for a train is fun at this refurbished ex-Edwardian refreshment room in Sheffield station. Behind the main multi-tapped bar with its polished mahogany counter is an equally grand mirrored back-bar topped by a carriage clock. The mood of the Tap ebbs and flows throughout the day. One minute the bustle of chatter when a train has pulled in, then it calms down as drinkers finish their pints and scurry off home.
sheffieldtap.com
One of Leeds’ oldest pubs becomes a lively evening hangout towards the end of the week. On my visit it was life-affirming and buzzy, a fantastic contrast to the gloomy autumn night outside. Office workers swapped confidences, traditional beer fans used their phones to tell social media what they were drinking (Five Points Railway Porter) and The Killers joined in on the sound system, though not too noisy to be intrusive. I left with a smile on my face.
whitelocksleeds.com
North West England
This late Georgian pub first started serving in 1811 and was a recruitment centre in the Napoleonic Wars. Peterloo also happened nearby and the pub commemorates it with a mural. Inside, the breathtaking decor has not changed since the 1930s. Expect plenty of brass, a long island bar, ceramic tiling, intricately decorated wooden panels and a wealth of gorgeously moulded plasterwork on the ceiling.
facebook.com/thebritonsprotection
Cask beer is the draw at this Victorian-era pub as is its free jukebox featuring artists as diverse as The Beatles, The Clash and Matt Monro. During my early afternoon visit, the mood was brisk and chatty and, in a room on the other side of the bar, a man played guitar as two women sang a melancholy song. Haunting and yet relaxing, I was told that this folky gathering was a regular Tuesday lunchtime occurrence.
theliontavern.co.uk
East of England
Imposing 1920s ‘Tudorbethan’ pub with a rousing reputation for beer, wine, spirits and delightful food. Bread, from simple baguettes to herby focaccia, is baked on the premises while vegetables come from the pub’s allotment. Naturally, local produce makes its way to the kitchen door. On my last visit, I devoured with gusto whole dressed Cromer crab, samphire, cucumber salad and saffron mayonnaise.
anchoratwalberswick.com
On a stormy autumnal day, ‘The Nelly’ is a haven where you can study the perfect ales of local heroes Adnams in a well-worn interior of flagstoned floors, high wooden settles, brewery artefacts and photographs of regulars lining the wooden gantry that frames the bar. As the year approaches its end, the pub offers the chance to try Adnams’ potent barley wine Tally-Ho.
thelordnelsonsouthwold.co.uk
South East England
A classic backstreet boozer where everyone knows each other and, even on your first visit, chances are you’ll fall into deep conversation along the solid wooden bar counter. Thursday nights at the Monty is darts night for the pub’s women’s team, while Sunday lunchtime sees snacks on the bar and regulars play poker dice, a tradition harking back to the 1950s. The beers are peerless, coming from the pub’s owner, Ramsgate Brewery.
montefiorearms.co.uk
South West England
This traditional tavern has been in the same family for over a century and famously was the first pub the Queen visited in 1998. The front parlour is a cosy hideaway where the soft tones of conversation provide the soundtrack in the company of dimpled mugs of cask beer. Meanwhile there’s also a snug at the back where a grandfather clock and family photos keep watch.
thebridgeinntopsham.co.uk
On a cold day the logs in the deep old fireplace of this edge-of-Dartmoor inn crackle and hiss like an ancient wizard trying to raise the devil. Best draw nearer with your pint to hand. There is also history here. It was in the front bar where Michael Morpurgo first heard war veterans’ tales that inspired him to write War Horse. Ted Hughes was also a regular.
dukeofyorkdevon.co.uk
Not only is the Haunch the oldest surviving pub in Salisbury but also the most haunted spot. Sightings include a woman in ‘old fashioned clothes’ plus a ghostly foot a waitress saw on the stairs. I have never seen or felt anything on my visits but sitting in the front bar, with its panelled walls, solid wooden counter and battered seating, it’s easy to wonder if that elderly gent nursing his pint in the corner is of our world.
haunchpub.co.uk
At this dog-friendly village inn, a trio of pooches, including a delightful boxer called Boots, greet drinkers and their four-legged friends. I visited often while writing my book, including on the day I heard of my mother’s death in a nursing home. As I wrote about her, a couple of pugs kept saying hello while Boots drowsed in front of the fire and I felt the pub’s ability to help me cope with my loss.
poachersinn.co.uk
Scotland
Solid-looking boozer slotted into a granite-faced terrace on Aberdeen’s Union Street. It was once an eating place but in 1926 became a pub and retains many of its original fixtures and fittings. There’s a good beer selection, but it’s whisky that stars here with over 500 drams, including many vintages, such as the 1938 Speyside from a long closed distillery that I once saw someone pay £35 for a glass of it.
thegrillaberdeen.co.uk
Whenever Ian Rankin’s fictional detective John Rebus needs a drink it is to this welcoming place he goes, which the author started visiting in the mid-1980s. As well as the main bar there is a cocoon-like L-shaped lounge with wooden settles and artistic snaps of Edinburgh. Sadly, Rankin wasn’t there on my visit but I still found it a space where you could sit in silence and consider that writing is 99% graft and 1% inspiration.
Wales
Multi-roomed establishment with 1920s Art Nouveau and Art Deco touches and home to a bunch of regulars nicknamed ‘the committee’. I met them on a busy Friday evening, a seven-strong constellation of fast-talking, self-deprecating middle-aged guys, with one of them telling me how they always chatted with visitors and made strangers welcome. Want a sociable pub with excellent local beer? This is it.
albionalehouse.weebly.com
This stone-built, roadside hotel and bar stands in the middle of Snowdonia and has long been a favourite for walkers, mountain bikers and climbers. In fact, the latter group have long frequented the place, most notably when it was HQ for Sir Edmund Hillary and his team as they were planning for Everest in 1953. Good food and splendid beer from nearby Purple Moose Brewery will sustain after a day in the great outdoors. Check for opening times.
pyg.co.uk
Northern Ireland
Where better to drink Guinness than in this Victorian gin palace? Once you’ve swooped on your glass of stout like a hawk on its prey take in the rich mosaic of furnishings. There are ten snugs, whose etched and stained glass panels suggest a nod to Arts & Crafts, while carved wooden statues of heraldic beasts stand sentinel on each side of the swinging door entrances. Then it’s time for another.
nicholsonspubs.co.uk
A Pub For All Seasons : A Yearlong Journey in Search of the Perfect British Local by Adrian Tierney-Jones is out now (Headline, £20)
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