Happy Hour - Hull Pub Explorations

What a good place to be...

Am I really going to throw predictable Housemartins references into the title?  Yes, of course I am.
This trip to Kingston-Upon-Hull was football orientated, with the KCOM being one of the last remaining Championship grounds I hadn't visited.  And I made sure to arrive with plenty of time to spare to explore a handful of the cities pubs.

The Minerva Hotel (Nelson Street, Hull, HU1 1XE)
Arriving late morning, we made our way down to the banks of Humber, with some unexpected splendid blue skies and sunshine.  In which The Minerva Hotel was looking glorious.

Smallest pub room in Britain?

Built in 1835, this would once have been a haunt for the dockers, but these days the dock to the side of it is filled with yachts and the pub serves a varied clientele.  
There are at least six separate areas to the pub, making it fun to explore as you try to pick your favourite spot.  
There's a great room to the left of the front door, wedge-shaped and bright, with the seats by the window offering views across the estuary.  
But we couldn't resist the tiny snug with space for three persons, at a push.  Signage in here claims that this is 'The smallest pub room in Britain'. Not sure about the validity of that claim, but it brings out the tragic tourist in me, posing for pictures sipping my beer sat here.  
The Minerva once had it's own brewery, but this was short-lived and the brewery now operates as a function room.  There was a good range of beers on the bar though, with three from the Revolutions Brewery, a good traditional Tetleys bitter and a blonde ale from the Yorkshire Brewing Company.

Chilli Devils (23 Arthur Street, Hull, HU3 6BH)
Appearing in the 2019 Good Beer Guide, this small bar was opened in 2017 by Ian Ibbetson who also has a business of the same name producing chilli sauces. 

 They proudly serve real ales and chilli-orientated dishes, plus there are chilli peppers growing along the windowsill and a list of globally inspired chilli dishes on the wall.
Yup, they like their chilli's.
Three ales were available on this visit, a porter, Elland Brewery's ever-reliable award winning 'Beyond the Pale' and, my pick, a  single-hop ale by Little Critters, hopped with Vic Secret.  This bitter pale ale worked well alongside a bowl of mildly spicy stew.  The 3 dishes available are all served from cauldrons at the back of the bar, so there's no waiting around for food to be served.
A great little relaxed place for some wholesome food and good ale.

Ye Olde White Hart (25 Silver Street, Hull, HU1 1JG)
There were four interesting looking pubs on the National Inventory of Historical Interiors list, but I only managed to visit this one this time around.
It is claimed the building on this site dates back to 1550, originally a grand house, prior to becoming a pub in the 1700's.  This was almost completely destroyed by a fire, leaving the Victorians to go to work on the elaborate interior that can be seen today.  

Like Oxford's Turf Tavern, it is tucked between the houses, off the road and accessed by one of two narrow alleyways.  There's two rooms on the ground floor, both with their own bar and both with enormous inglenook fireplaces.  Beers come from Theakston's and Caledonian Brewery plus a local guest ale.
I figured we could just about fit one more in before having to make our way to the match, so we heading just around the corner to The George Hotel.


The George Hotel (Land of Green Ginger, Hull, HU1 2EA)
This was once the tap room and gatehouse for the large, long-demolished George Hotel, so despite its name there is no hotel and you'll be disappointed if you come here looking for a bed.
You may also be disappointed if you come looking for England's Smallest Window.  It's an odd claim to fame - a slit in between the bricks, around 2½ x 25cm, which has been glazed over at some point in time. A gatekeeper would once have sat behind it, looking out to identify bona-fide hotel guests, then let them in through the adjacent archway.
The pub consists of one impressive wood panelled room, unspoilt and dating back to Georgian times, with real fires burning and plenty of custom on this Saturday afternoon.
Horse racing on the sole TV screen, which normally knocks points off a pub for me, but as it offered friendly service, a pleasant atmosphere and well-kept ale, they are excused.
And as if good beer and a record-breaking window were not enough it's located on a street called the Land of Green Ginger!  Which is ace!

England's smallest window, at The George Hotel

Beers downed at the George, it was time to trek across town to Hull City's Kingston Communications Stadium.


Having made the walk back into the centre, elated that I'd remarkably watched back-to-back Forest wins, we headed in the search of some fancy craft beer from Atom that had been spotted on Untappd earlier in the day.  This Hull brewery serve up their ales at the Corn Exchange (1-4 North Church Side, Hull, HU1 1RP).  It would have once been a multi-roomed pub, but has since been opened up and modernised, with 14 taps and 4 cask ales available.  With a great selection I would have usually stayed here for more, but we'd just missed the last order time for food and needed some nourishment.

Which took us a short walk to The Head of Steam (10 King Street, Hull, HU1 2JJ).
This had been a 'maybe' on my list of pubs, but on the hunt for pub grub, with a good menu, decent beer and one remaining table that we could bag, this proved to be a real winner.
Our plates of food were filling and tasty, the beer range was good and the pub was busy and lively without being uncomfortably packed.
Well worth a visit - and my 'You may as well pass' a hop-heavy 6.9% IPA, on cask and brewed by Abbeydale and Brew York was my beer of the day.

Next destination:The Lion & Key (48 High Street, Hull, HU1 1QE) which we'd passed earlier in the day but not had time to visit.

The Lion & Key, earlier in the day

Looking at Whatpub, their website still pictures this as Durty Nellys Irish pub.  It's now reverted to it's original name and is run by the neighbouring Cathead brewery.
This was packed to the rafters and doing a roaring trade when we arrived - bouncers on the door ushering in merry groups crawling the bars of the old town.
It has a spectacular pub interior with it's ceiling plastered with beer mats, wagon wheel lights, bric-a-brac on the shelves and old Hull pictures on the wall.  There was a massive choice of cask ale, but my pick of Cathead 'Ruby Ale' was not at peak condition unfortunately.  Spoilt with such a big choice & I picked the wrong one.

The Lion & Key - at six-minutes past eight.

My plan to visit the historic Black Boy on the High Street was scuppered by it being so ridiculously busy.  Getting into the back bar was akin to squeezing in to a London tube train in rush hour and as there was no way it would be enjoyable to stay, we walked around the corner to  Wm Hawkes  (32 Scale Lane, Hull, HU1 1LF).
This had looked equally rammed on the way past earlier, but the revellers seemed to have moved on - perhaps lured away by the coloured lights across the road at the Manchester Arms which was choc-a-bloc.
The eponymous Mr Hawkes was a gun maker operating from these premises many years ago.
Whilst it appears to be an ancient pub, it's only been up and running since 2012 so fair do's to the designers who have given it a truly historic feel.
Owned by the same folks as the Lion & Key, there is a large range of hand pumps along the bar with both Cathead and local Yorkshire breweries on offer.

A great place, but sadly the last of the night for me.  My stomach was telling me it had had its fill of food and ale for the day and my hotel bed was calling. 
Hull really was a good place to be for the intrepid pub crawler.  I left with a fair number of places on my list un-visited, so a return trip is on the cards.

With folks flocking for Hull patties you'd think they could afford to replace the missing apostrophe, ampersand and 'N'.
Look out, the 'T''s going next.