Peterborough Pub Crawl

A Sunday excursion to Peterborough, which would take us to micro pubs, a barge, evening meal in Spoons, craft beer, and a heritage pub.
Look at the lovely midday sunshine and blue sky.  Just our luck that it'd be raining by 3 o'clock.

After a short trek around the city centre, we set off south across the River Nene and into suburban Fletton where our first micro pub of the day awaited... 

The Wonky Donkey (102C High Street, Fletton, Peterborough, PE2 8DR) 
On our arrival there was just one couple sat at a table tucking into a cheeseboard - "I'm setting aside this knife as it's contaminated with brie" was the announcement that greeted us.  I'm assuming it was communal micro pub cheese, although they seemed like they were undertaking a challenge to demolish the lot.

A chap trudged back and forth from the rear room/garden, loading his car with his northern soul and 2-tone DJ booth and catering paraphernalia.  Apparently we were one day too late for the Pirate Party.  A fair few locals trotted in, filling all the front room tables, all complaining of sore heads from the previous night's frivolities, although that wasn't putting them off ordering bottles of German lager.
I picked the Leatherbritches ale, guided to it by the Queen connection and 7" style pump clip, rather than the Jester, Chinook, and Citra hop mix.

Good value at £4.40 a pint, with plenty of other ale and cider to pick from if you're fussier than me.
A decent start in a very local micro pub.

Moving on, we headed back to the riverside and to Charters Bar, spectacularly situated on a Dutch barge which dates back to 1907. 

Charters (Town Bridge, Peterborough, PE1 1FP)
This used to be always be a port of call for me on football visits, being just a couple of minutes from London Road.  The difference now is that the outdoor area has dramatically multiplied in size.
We climbed the gang-plank, a Thai restaurant in the top section, the bar in the depths of the boat.  It's a bar that I love - full of character and serving up a choice of beers that could keep you here all afternoon.

One bank of hand pumps serves four local Oakham ales at very reasonable prices; another bit of the bar features the guest beers, as well as  there being some decent keg and cider on offer.
As it was, I opted for the strong (6%) Xtreme 'Xporter', a marvelous dark brew, accompanying a platter of Thai food.

Departing from Charters, we back-tracked on ourselves, venturing into a quiet side street to seek out the Coalheavers Arms.

Coalheavers Arms (5 Park Street, Peterborough, PE2 9BH)
This is a characterful little pub, open-plan, with dividing walls creating three distinct areas.  Most of the punters were settled in the middle part, on bar stools and tables in front of two TV screens showing Sunday afternoon footy.

An interesting fact about the Coalheavers is that it's the only pub in the city to have been hit by a WW2 bomb - this penetrated through to the cellar but didn't explode - the pub opening as usual later the same night.
Cask ales on offer included a couple of Greene King seasonal brews and a Goffs 'Jester 31'
The Goffs for me - top tropical murk...

We took the beer and settled on benches in the rear corner, surrounded by a selection of motorbike racing pictures and memorabilia.  The staff flicked the TV nearby us onto the football and I found myself hooked on the north London derby.
Half time - a quick trip to use the facilities...

Then we were off, making the 5-minute walk to Oundle Road in a handy gap in the rain showers that had come out of nowhere.

Yard of Ale (72 Oundle Road, Peterborough, PE2 9PA)
I was cheerful to see screens in every direction on which I could follow the second half of the footy in the Yard of Ale.  Tough luck if you don't like football, although a couple of chaps defiantly sat reading their books in front of the TV.  There was a nice split of people supporting both sides, plus a man in a Forest shirt in the back room (we won a game, donchaknow!).  I got chatting to him on the way back from the loos leading Mrs PropUptheBar to think I'd absconded through a back door.
 
There was a great selection of cask at the Yard of Ale, from which I opted for the Black Lodge Brewery 'Anytime Cowboy', a viciously strong and fruity 'proper' IPA.

One omission from this Peterborough pub crawl was the Palmerston Arms, just a couple of doors down from the Yard of Ale.  But the rain seemed to have stopped again, and we wanted to try and get back to the centre and check into our hotel without getting drenched.
That done, we ventured back out to our second micro pub. 

The Bumble Inn (46 Westgate, Peterborough, PE1 1RE)
Opened in 2016, this micro is located in a former chemists shop.  It has been a hit with the local CAMRA folk who've named it the branch Pub Of The Year in 2024.

It's a micro of the authentic variety - one room, one WC, no distractions - talk to each other etc etc.
Cask ale on the bar came from Rudgate, Daleside, Hobsons, Thirsty Moose, and Black Hole Brewery.  A sensible 3.4% Thirsty Moose 'Belta Blonde' session ale for me.  

Without football on a telly, we just had the woodland scene on the opposite wall to stare at, with it's hidden ewok and bambi.

Right, enough of these Beer Guide places. 
What we needed next was some sour beer whilst listening to Audioslave.

Blind Tiger (11-13 Cowgate, Peterborough, PE1 1LZ)
This modern central craft bar is well worth a visit.  Seating ranges from the comfy cushioned bench I was on, to high stools, or those rather tragic swing seats suspended from the ceiling.
We arrived to a Sour Beer Showcase, so decided to go with the flow.
Now, here's some proper beer.... (!)

 

All very colourful stuff.  All pretty good as well, although we reached our sour beer capacity for the day with four 1/3 pints between us.
The bar was quiet, just half a dozen other customers, the barman looking thoroughly bored as he counted down the clock to the 8pm closing time.  At least he had a decent grungy alt rock soundtrack to listen to.
There is also some (short-lived, in my case) entertainment to be had from the arcade machines and a table-top Ms Pacman console.  Seriously, is it even possible to get past level 2?!

Leaving the Blind Tiger, we called into the Drapers Arms Wetherspoon branch for a bite to eat and a ginger beer.  A bit of sustenance and fizzy pop gave us the energy to make a 20-minute walk north into the suburbs of Peterborough, a heritage pub our target.
Dusk had fallen by the time we arrived, the un-illuminated frontage plus parking cars making for a tricky pub picture.

The Hand & Heart (12 Highbury Street, Peterborough, PE1 3BE)
It looked so dark on approach that we feared it may not be open, but there was light spilling from the doorway.
This leads into a corridor, with an off-sales counter and doors to the Bar, Smoke Room, and back yard where you'll find the outdoor gents.  The back room was locked, so I didn't get to see that.  Which left us joining the handful of Sunday evening customers in the front bar.

It's an outstanding pub room.  No nonsense seating around two walls, fireplace with darts above it, bookshelf full of beer guides, and a TV showing Allo Allo.
At the end of 2023 we found ourselves in the St John's Hotel in Hull watching Steptoe and Son.  The Hand & Heart provided my second classic British comedy in a pub experience, all the punters keeping at least half an ear on the show and chuckling at the latest mess René had gotten himself into surrounding the stolen Madonna with the big boobies.

There were three cask ales available, with a couple more pump clips turned around.  Mine was a reasonable pint of Brewsters 'Outsanding in their Field'.  A handwritten 'cash only' sign took away the "cash-card-which do you prefer-either" exchange and ensured the staff member got back to his game of cribbage quickly.

A great pub.
Leaving us with just enough time - and barely enough room - for one last beer in The Ostrich.  Another dubious night-time picture.

The Ostrich is somewhere I'll have to visit earlier in the day next time I'm in Peterborough.  I suspect it would be one of my favourite pubs had I started there, or visited when they had live music on.  But this time, I was ready to drink up and make for my bed.

Peterborough had been a winning destination on this occasion - a good variety of places visited and a whole lot missed which should necessitate a return visit.