Lutterworth Pub Crawl

In which I spend a couple of hours visiting the pubs of Lutterworth, at the southern edge of Leicestershire.  There will be Bass.  And empty bars.  And Superman on the loo.

Hopping off the bus, I was just a couple of minutes along the road from the first pub of day, The Unicorn, open from 10:30am for breakfast and Bass.
By the time I was arriving at 11:45 there were half a dozen locals settled in the bar.

The Unicorn (29 Church Street, Lutterworth, LE17 4AE)
This is a solid traditional town pub, it's appearance slightly spoilt due to the original corner entrance being blocked up.  Instead, the way-in is through the door to the side, followed by the gamble whether to go left or right.
To the left is the public bar, log fire burning, golf on the TV, Northamptonshire skittles in the corner and picture of Jamie Vardy on the wall.  What more do you need?!

Real ales available at the bar were Greene King 'IPA', Sharpes 'Atlantic' and Bass. 
Not too much time needed to dither in this instance.

My clandestine pub photography is well and truly clocked

Half a pint sunk in the bar, I took a stroll through to finish the rest in the lounge bar, getting me a very suspicious look from the staff for choosing to sit in two different seats in one visit.
This side of the pub is a little more homely with some bench seating next to the bar, historic pictures of Lutterworth covering the wall in preference to Jamie Vardy.  Beyond the central fireplace were tables ideal for eating, and I really should have eaten - simple pub grub at brilliant prices.

Leaving the Unicorn, I strolled through the drizzle, around by the market square, then down the hill to the Fox, which was billed as the village pub in the town.
I could see some lights on, but not much sign of life, so was hopeful that the 'come in we're open' sign hanging on the front door was right.

The Fox (35 Rugby Road, Lutterworth, LE17 4BN - web) 
It was - I strolled in to find an open-plan lay-out with two different sides...
To the left was the bar, with it's pastel-shade wooden frontage and Six Nations flag display; a handful of small tables and stools along the wall.
To the right of the front door was the more restaurant-like section with chunky brown leather seats and cutlery laid out on the tables, deterring me from sitting there.
And not a customer in sight.

 

The landlord was on the phone to the internet provider for the duration of my visit, telling the IT helpdesk to hold on one second whilst he poured me a Bass.  More Bass!

I grabbed a dinky stool opposite the bar counter, where the TV showed the news with the volume up.
What fun!  Doom and gloom on the 24-hour news channel or earwigging a speakerphone conversation with the IT helpline.

I think I was happiest viewing the artwork in the Gents...

Mild Sailor Jerry smut in the Gents

As with most places I go, The Fox can't be judged properly by my visit at an unsociable hour and would likely be completely different another time.
The Bass was okay, but not quite up to the standard of The Unicorn.

Back up the hill along the ridiculously busy road, I took a quick tourist shot of the town hall, then onward to the next pub.

Just past the market square, on the main road, is the fairly impressive looking Greyhound, an old coaching inn dating back to 1758.

The coaching archway led to a charming courtyard where someone's obviously got green fingers...

Greyhound (9 Market Square, Lutterworth, LE17 4EJ - web)
Heading through the door, there's the hotel reception desk which was enough to make me briefly wonder if I was in the right place.  The bar is in the front room to the right, with the receptionist hopping out their seat to relocate behind the counter ready to serve me.

Just the one other punter, who didn't take long to quaff his Guinness and leave after I bowled in disturbing the peace.

Doom Bar and Citra on the hand pumps, alongside a welcome Leicestershire-local, Dow Bridge Brewery 'Acris', making for something a little different.  And very nice it was too.
I did like the bar of the Greyhound, with some grand old rustic furniture and classic paintings.

Not fully capturing the matching cushions and curtains in this shot

I left the Greyhound and had a quick wander to check the micropub in the vague hope that Facebook's opening hours may be the right ones.  No such luck.
All other sources of information suggested I'd need to hang around two hours, possibly three, for the Real Ale Classroom to open it's doors. That wasn't going to happen on this grey and rainy day.

So, a quick check of the bus times led to confirmation that I could squeeze in a half pint at the Shambles...

Shambles Inn (10-12 Bell Street, Lutterworth, LE17 4DW - web)
This old inn looks the business with thatched roof and whitewashed frontage complete with wooden beams running through it.  Yet I managed to take the least appealing picture possible.
Then did the inside no justice either by taking one solitary photo of the beer range.

The Shambles was spacious, with multiple areas - pool table to the back, cosy spots just inside the front door, dining tables to the side.  It had a fairly mixed crowd and was by far the busiest place of the day.
The chap who'd departed the Greyhound earlier was settled in an armchair in the front and gave me a nod - "On a pub crawl are you?" he asked, "Good on yer!"

With my Banks's Bitter, I perched on an uncomfortable high stool near the bar and contemplated a fairly successful visit to the town.  
As a teenager, I spent four years being ferried back and forth to Lutterworth on the school bus (and based on the number of factual and grammatical errors in my average blog post, a fat lot of good that did me!)  So this had been a bit of a walk down memory lane.  
The Real Ale Classroom (opened by a couple of ex-teachers) would have given me the chance of a smart school days orientated blog-post title, had it been open.
Oh well, suppose I'd better just call it 'Lutterworth Pub Crawl' then...