A lot of my pub trips this year have been guided by my quest to visit all the remaining art deco pubs in the UK, which I documented in three blog posts. I didn’t just visit art deco pubs on these trips of course, and came across a few classic pubs which I’d never been to before. The top five pubs this year go from Tynemouth in the north of England to Brighton in the south plus a hop across the Irish Sea to Belfast.
Royal Oak, Ockbrook, Derbyshire
55 Green Lane, Ockbrook, DE72 3SE
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The Royal Oak is only a few miles from Derby, but there’s only one minibus an hour. Fellow pub hunter Bernard and I were enjoying a couple of pints at the Malt Shovel in Spondon (which was a serious contender for this year’s top five) and missed the bus to Ockbrook. This meant catching another bus to a footpath a mile outside the village and then walking a kilometre to the Royal Oak. But it was absolutely worth it to find a great pub that managed that rare trick of being a destination food venue as well as a proper drinkers pub with good ale.
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The Royal Oak has been in the Wilson family for over 70 years and while much has changed in that time it still retains its wood panelled snug, an ancient settle and a commitment to maintaining a traditional and convivial pub with a cosy atmosphere. It’s been in the Good Beer Guide for 30 years and though there are 3 changing ales we both went for the Draught Bass, which is on all year round. Landlord Steve told us that we’d just missed the annual beer festival which this year featured ales from Kent. A top pub all round and I’d recommend a visit. Though maybe find a willing driver!
Sunflower, Belfast
65 Union Street, Belfast BT1 2JG
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A family trip to the north of Ireland gave my brother and I a chance to try out Belfast’s gradually growing independent beer and pub scene. After a visit to the John Hewitt we headed via the famous murals on Kent Street and Library Street to the Sunflower. It was quite busy when we arrived late afternoon, with a good mix of loud students, old lads like us and a few couples. It continued to fill up and we realised why when the Manouche Gypsy Jazz band set up to give us a great early evening session of an uplifting but rarely seen (by me anyway) music style. There’s live music almost every day of the week.
The single handpump was serving an English beer, Round Corner Market Pale, all the way from Melton Mowbray which was on good form, and there was a fine choice of keg beers from Irish breweries like Tilt & Pour and Boundary. Along with the magnificent Crown Bar, the Sunflower has to be a must visit on a trip to Belfast.
Alexandra Tavern, Norwich
16 Stafford Street, Norwich, NR2 3BB
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Not so many years ago Norwich was a celebrated beer town, but times have moved on, and now it doesn’t even make it into Matthew Curtis’s recent ranking of The UK’s Top Ten Beer Cities. I’ve passed through the city a few times but this was a belated attempt to properly explore its alehouses. It’s clearly still a town of proper pubs and of the 28 entries for Norwich in the current Good Beer Guide there’s only one micropub and one taproom.
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The Alexandra was my favourite, a corner local with two rooms, bench seating, a good mix of people and five cask beers. All the beers were from the east of England and I enjoyed Woodforde’s Tap & Go and Batemans Hooker to accompany my excellent vegetable soup. It’s only a short walk from the award-winning Fat Cat which has a predictably excellent range of ales, and was geeky good fun, but the cheerful Alexandra was definitely more my sort of pub.
Tynemouth Lodge Hotel, Tynemouth
Tynemouth Road, Tynemouth, NE30 4AA
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I’d been aware of the Tynemouth Lodge and its legacy as a pioneer real ale pub in the north east for a long time but I’d never made it inside. A meal with friends had been planned at the newly opened (and art deco) Tynemouth Castle Inn on the seafront so my wife and I decided to head out early to visit the Tynemouth Lodge (confusing I know). As the photos below show we arrived just after opening time, but the pub soon filled and before long we were chatting to the locals and moving on to another pint of Hadrian Grainger. Needless to say we were late for the meal at the Tynemouth Castle.
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The Tynemouth Lodge has been owned by Hughie Price since the 1980s and just before our visit he had received an award from the local Camra branch for “40 years of exceptional cask ale”. And the banner at the side from the locals said “Thanks Hugh for 40 years of good beer 1983-2023 (but not for the jokes)”. Hughie has now semi-retired to the Lake District but the beer is as good as ever. The pub is famous for its Bass but there was none on our visit because, to the bar managers’s annoyance, supplies were unreliable. Molson Coors must have fixed the problem because a check on the pub’s Facebook page shows that it’s now back on.
Great Eastern, Brighton
103 Trafalgar Street, Brighton, BN1 4ER
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I was in Brighton mainly to see the great art deco interior of the Ladies Mile on the edge of town, a great community pub which very nearly made it into my top five. I was really taken though with the Great Eastern, a place I’d managed to miss on multiple boozy trips to the city. There was, not unlike the Sunflower (above), a great mix of people of all ages from young punks and hipsters to an elderly well spoken couple sitting next to me doing the i crossword. I helped with a couple of clues.
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Also like the the Sunflower it’s a music pub, though it’s DJs rather than live acts spinning an impressive range of musical styles including rockabilly, 70s reggae, funk, Afro Latin jazz, country soul and library music! There was a good range of cask beers from Siren, Sociable, By The Horns and Long Man, and a small selection of craft ales.
See also:
My Top Five Pub Discoveries in 2023
My Top Five Pub Discoveries in 2022
My Top Five Pub Discoveries in 2021