National Inventory Pub Crawling: York

One of my closest friends from Reading - we met at university when I was doing my BA and she was doing her PhD - moved up to York early in 2005. She knows the city well as she was at university there, so rather than having a house-warming party, she decided to have a "York warming" weekend and introduce some of her friends to the delights of the city and its hostelries. Sadly for me I was on my own for this trip (in August 2005) as Andy had to work, but what a weekend we had!

We started off on Friday evening at the Minster Inn, where I had a pleasant pint of Belhaven fruit beer at £2.45. The Minster used to be in the CAMRA National Inventory but lost its place when a new hatchway to the bar was built. It's still a nice little pub though, and very friendly. From the Minster we moved onto the Golden Lion, which had nine real ales available; I chose a very good pint of Wentworth Oatmeal Stout. We ate here as well and an excellent steak cost just £6.75.

Our next stop was the Tap and Spile, which had five real ales and one real cider available. I tried a pint of Batemans Middle Stump at £2.40, which was reasonable although nothing special, and enjoyed reading a couple of Viz "Real Ale Twats" cartoons on one of the pillars. The Yorkshire Terrier, an outlet of the York Brewery, is a tiny pub tucked behind a shop front - you would barely know it was there - but it's worth searching out. The bar was very hot and smoky when we went in but a non-smoking room was available up a flight of narrow stairs (which were fitted with a stairlift, although I don't know if it was working). There were no dark beers available so I tried the Clarks Rams Revenge, which was excellent (I didn't make a note of the price). Our final stop on Friday was the Three-Legged Mare, another York Brewery pub that's known locally as the Wonkey Donkey after one of their beers. The pub was converted from a shop and has a cafe-style layout. A pint of Wonkey Donkey here cost £2.30. As well as real ale the TLM also sells Liefmann's and Chimay, and when I commented on this I was told that most of the real ale pubs in York sell Belgian bottled beers.

On Saturday three of us started the day with a walk around the city wall. We were told it would take about three quarters of an hour; but it actually took us an hour and twenty minutes as we dawdled and took photos. Despite that we just managed to get to our first stop in time to meet the others for lunch. The Maltings had seven real ales available including Dark Star (stupidly I didn't write down the brewery), an excellent 5% beer that maybe wasn't very sensible at lunchtime! The food here was superb as well, and good value with huge portions. The lethal chilli, which two of our group tried, is described on the menu as "a cure for constipation".

From the Maltings we moved on to the York Brewery, where a tour costs £4.50 including two halves, one at the start and one at the end of the tour. Our two were Guzzler, a golden ale, and Yorkshire Terrier, which won Bronze in the 2000 Champion Beer of Britain awards. The tour was very good, conducted by someone who was clearly knowledgeable about the whole brewing process as well as well versed in the brewery's practices. After finishing our second sample we moved on to the Ackhorne (an unusual spelling of acorn), which is tucked away down a side street and had five real ales and one real cider available. A pint of Outlaw Mayflower (3.7%) and one of Roosters Yankee (4.3%) cost £4.35 for the two. I didn't actually note which of the two I had; it wasn't bad, but it was a bit cloudy and nothing special. The pub was pleasant though, with a raised outdoor patio area at the back of the pub.

The Golden Ball is on the National Inventory and is worth a look: a Victorian corner local that has several small rooms with lofty ceilings, and a lovely patio garden area where we were surprised to find tomatoes growing in a hanging basket! Here I paid £2.30 for a half each of Everards Tiger and Celedonian Deuchars IPA. The Tiger wasn't too bad and was in reasonably good condition, but the Marstons Pedigree, which one of the others was drinking, was flat and didn't taste anything like its normal self.

We had better luck at the Swan, another National Inventory pub that has a wide central stand-up lobby and hatches from the bar to two rooms. Here again there was a very pleasant garden area, with cast-iron tables, and umbrellas to keep the sun off. Sparklers gave the beer a milky appearance when it was poured, but it settled into a very good pint of Easy Rider, clear and in good condition. There were six real ales available altogether here.

The Rook and Gaskill, a large open-plan pub, has a very impressive twelve handpumps, of which eleven were on when we made it our next stop. I'd had a few beers by this time and just had a half of Banks & Taylor Shefford Old Dark at £1.15.

Our final National Inventory pub of the weekend, the Blue Bell, is a treasure with intact fittings and panelling from 1903. It's an intimate pub with a small front bar, a tiny hatch in the corridor and another tiny hatch from the lounge/snug area. Wooden panelling throughout makes it quite dark, and the smoke hit us as we walked in, although the effect wore off as the doors were open to keep the air circulating. There are seven handpumps here, with six beers on during our visit. I was told that the beer quality here can be variable but my half of Tetley's Mild at £1 tasted absolutely fine to me, although it wasn't at its very best.

After seven pubs we were beginning to feel the need for something rather more substantial and went to Caesar's, a busy Italian restaurant where we had a table booked. The food was good, with huge pizzas but a lot of variety in the size of pasta portions. The house wine was decidedly iffy, but on the whole the restaurant was good value.

Feeling replete, we moved on to the Last Drop Inn, where I tried the very dark and smoky Centurian's Ghost from the York Brewery. At 5.4% I was quite happy to pay £2.40 for a pint and the beer was good, but the pub itself was nothing special. Ye Olde Starre Inne also had Centurian's Ghost on, but I didn't notice much else; my notes record that the pub was immensely crowded, hot and claustrophobic. The outside area was pleasant though.

From here we moved to the Three-Legged Mare where I had yet more Centurian's Ghost - just a half this time - and finally back to the Minster for a pint of Belhaven fruit beer before we collapsed back to my friend's house.

On Sunday we were all feeling a bit jaded and refreshed ourselves with a riverboat cruise. Sitting in the fresh air watching York drift gently past and hearing some of its history was just what we needed, and I was thrilled when two of us saw a kingfisher; the first time I've ever seen one. It cost £6.50 for an hour's trip and was well worth it.

We headed back to the Tap and Spile for lunch and found it to be very good value for money; then we moved on to the Golden Slipper, an odd-looking place with cubby holes. A small shady garden area out at the back, with pictures of the city walls painted on the wall of the building, was a haven from the heat of the day, but the beers (Caledonian Deuchars and John Smiths Magnet) were both a bit warm.

I left the crawl at this point to head back to York station for my train, but I left the others debating their next stop - I think they ended up going to one of the haunted pubs, of which I noticed at least two as we walked round. I was very glad that I had a friend to show me round; the number of pubs in York is simply staggering, and it's very helpful to have a starting point. York is a beautiful and fascinating city and it's impossible to take it all in over the course of one weekend. I'd recommend a week here at least, with a good hangover cure tucked into your suitcase!

Sophie

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