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A Pub Tour of Bath 2005
Bath is known to the tourist for it's Georgian architecture and the restored Roman baths but the town has much to offer the pub enthusiast.
Under the direction of PHS Member Mick Slaughter a small party of followers discovered some of the town's best known public houses.
Our party of 12 had been swelled by another two joining us in London and three more making their own way to Bath including PHS Members Ed and Jackie Garman from Salisbury.
Our first port of call was the Georgian terraced Old Green Tree, situated in Green St. Refitted in 1928, it boasts wood pannelling in all three of it's rooms. One phenomena that continues to surface is the numbering of the different rooms, in this case the lounge is number 1, smoke room is 3 and the cellar is 4. We assume that the bar was number 2. This appears in numerous pubs around the country including the Star in the not too far away Paragon, Gardener's Arms in Bloxwich and the Hand & Heart in Peterborough being just 3 examples. Do we assume that this identification of rooms was a prerequisite for the licensing Justices?
Lunch was at the Good Beer Guide listed Pig and Fiddle in Saracen St where the locally brewed Abbey Ales Festivity Porter was well received.
Most of the party made a point of visiting the superbly  unspoilt National Inventory and Good Beer Guide listed Star, a wonderful multi-roomed pub still selling Bass from the jug served from casks on the stillage, behind the bar. First licensed in 1759 the pub has seen much history including a WWII bombing raid which saw the houses opposite suffer a direct hit. The Star was fitted out by Gaskell and Chambers who, in the 1904 Licensed Victuallers Annual describe themselves as 'pewterers, bar fitters and sole makers of the waste not beer engines'. They obviously knew what they were doing!
The smaller bar is still used by many older regulars and features a long single bench known as 'death row' where a complimentary pinch of snuff can still be found in the tins on the ledge above the wa ll panelling. The Star is now known throughout the area as the brewery tap for Abbey Ales and is a 'must visit' if you're in the area. This is how pubs should be!
The Alehouse in York Street was the next on the itinerary which was built around 1796 and was originally known as the York Street Wine Vaults.
Some of the party walked further along London Road to the Long Acre Tavern which was built in the late 1950's and remains completely unchanged to this day with its bar, lounge and a now disused off-sales shop. Two Wadworths beers are sold which went down very well.
Another port of call was the Salamander. Originally opened as a coffee bar with a licence to serve alcohol to diners in about 1957 it is now Bath Ale's second outlet and has gained a reputation for it's food and ales. The pub stands in John St which was built by John Wood in 1730.
The Coeur de Lion is known as Bath's smallest pub. Tucked away off the High Street it is notoriously difficult to find (but well worth the effort!) The Coeur (as it is known to the locals) started out on the other side of Northumberland Place as a fairly disreputable beerhouse around 1866. It moved to its present location around 1890 and is the only pub in the country with this name.
The two other pubs taken in were the Alehouse with its old Victorian bar fittings and cellar bar and Lambrettas a wood panelled bar close to the station.
Despite the difficulties laid in our way by the various railway companies (come back BR, all is forgiven!) we managed a tour around some truly spectacular pubs. An extended tour with more time in each pub will hopefully be organised in the future.
Our thanks to the Star for permission to use their photos. |
