From Beeston to the Malt Cross Tavern

In which we make a short hop out of Nottingham to the town of Beeston.  You've got a choice of train, tram, or bus to make the 3-mile journey.  We took the train on which we barely had time to settle into our seats before it was time to get off and admire Beeston's hilly scenery.

According to Wikipedia, Beeston has one of the highest concentrations of pubs in the United Kingdom.  Which makes me feel a little guilty that we were only making a flying visit to the three current beer guide entries.
First up: The Crown...

The Crown Inn (Church Street, Beeston, NG9 1FY)
The entry in the 1975 Good Beer Guide, when this was a Hardys & Hansons pub, tells us it's a "splendid example of what a pub should be".
It also notes that it is "under threat of modernisation" and I guess the results of that are what we encountered on arrival, entering through the second door to the right hand side of the building.  This led into a comfy spacious area which was the result of a 1976 extension.  There's a large bar counter in this section, some not-so-old wooden beams, plenty of proper pub seating, and old black and white pictures of the town on the walls.

I took my Dancing Duck '22' golden ale on an excursion through the pub to explore the older bits.
The locals were gathered in the warm and cosy games room where the darts board was proving popular.  A stone floored corridor leads through to the front door of the pub with another busy small room to one side and the original public bar to the other. 

This is a wonderful pub room - a bench under the window with three small tables lined along it and a minuscule partitioned snug at the far end.

The Crown is a multi-award winner, with a choice of drinks that could easily keep you here all day.  Other than the Dancing Duck brew I picked, casks served up beers from Oakham, Shiny, Dark Star, Marble, Abbeydale, and Nene Valley.  Plus crafty kegs and real ciders.

The 'three seat confessional' snug

We moved on, walking back around Middle Street to the The Star Inn which looks out across at the tram stop and the enormous Tesco Extra.

The Star Inn (22 Middle Street, Beeston, NG9 1FX)
The first thing that I noticed about the Star was the Boon mural next to the bins on the side wall; the second was the marvelous Shipstone's Brewery windows.
There were several rooms leading off from the central hallway - main bar to the front, lounge to the rear, and sports bar extending into the building at the side.

We settled on a high table by the bar.
Beers were helpfully listed on a board on the wall with pump clips placed on a light-dark / low-high ABV grid.  There was Marstons 'Pedigree' or Oakham 'Citra' for those wanting something a bit familiar, plus lots of local choice, few of which I recognised.

I picked an Alter Ego 'Incognito' from Alfreton, over the border in Derbyshire, and settled in the main bar with a pub cob (not up to the standards of the Black Country, but it filled a gap).

A 10-minute walk took us to the third Beeston beer guide entry.  The Alexandra Hotel is a big Victorian red-brick building located next to the railway line and handily close to the station.

Alexandra Hotel (85 Dovecote Lane, Beeston, NG9 1JG)
The pub dates back to 1899 when it was constructed by Ind Coope & Co.  It ended up in the hands of Allied Breweries who let it fall into disrepair, finally to be rescued by Castle Rock (Tynemill at that time) in 1994.

Faced with a gamble of which door to pick on the way in, we headed right into a self-contained square room with high red ceiling and loads of old brewery posters on the wall.
The main bar was actually through the door to the left and we didn't get to see this.  I'll revisit and sit in the other bar one day, when I return to Beeston and do the town more justice

I enjoyed a quick half of 'Foxx' session IPA from Derby's Little Brewing Company, my pick from the third great selection of beers of the day.
Our visit to the Alexandra was short as we checked the train times and raced out the door to catch the next service back to Nottingham. 

Where we headed to the Bunkers Hill Tavern (36-38 Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 1FP) which was packed to the rafters with the majority of punters settled in to watch Forest on the telly.
I've watched footy here a few times and really like the place - cracking atmosphere and a couple of decent pints of First and Last 'Reiver', a best bitter all the way from Northumberland.

We then strolled up the lively streets of the Lace Market for a revisit to the Angel Brewery (7 Stoney Street, Lace Market, Nottingham, NG1 1LG).
A multi-roomed pub with a good crowd in, outside loos plastered with stickers, some good music, brew kit taking up a lot of space in the corner.

 

Then our final stop was a bit of a revelation - somewhere that was completely off my radar, but found by the friends who'd whizzed up to Nottingham to join us for the evening.

Malt Cross Music Hall (16 St James's Street, Nottingham, NG1 6FE)
I must have walked past this many time when it was a cafe in the late '80's, St James's Street being a regular haunt for my youthful CD shopping in Way Ahead Records.
It's a Grade II listed former Victorian Music Hall, which was built in 1877.  It's had a recent restoration in 2014 thanks to Lottery funding bringing this hall back to its former glory.
And it is now run on a not-for-profit model in conjunction with the YMCA.

Five hand pumps offered a stouts from Castle Rock and Magic Rock, a super Black Iris black IPA with a superbly devilish pump clip, and ales from Wiper and True and Tiny Rebel.
Not a bad selection, plus there were German beers and craft options on the kegs should the cask not take your fancy.

This was an incredible building to end our Nottingham trip in, remarkably quiet on a busy evening in town when the crowds were packing themselves into the much less remarkable 'Spoons just across the road.