Driffield, Beverley, and Hull

A trip on the train from Hull to the market towns of Driffield and Beverley, leaving ourselves just enough time at the end of the day to get lost in a Hull housing estate looking for a way across the A62 for one last pint.

We hopped aboard the Hull>Bridlington train and made the 30-minute trip to Driffield, home to just over 13,000 people in the middle of the Wolds.

Our destination was the Butchers Dog, midway up the main street.

The Butchers Dog (57 Market Place, Driffield, YO25 6AW)
This is a pub that upset the usual PropUptheBar scheme of things.  At just gone midday I'm used to finding pubs and bars bereft of customers, making staff jump by appearing at the bar much earlier than they expected to see anyone.
Not so the Butchers Dog, bustling with cheery punters at an early hour, whilst a chap with a guitar set up in the corner to provide afternoon entertainment, and three dogs took it in turn to provide trip hazards.

This pub has been the Butchers Dog since 2021, having had several other identities prior to that.
And I thought it was great.  A mixed crowd of punters, mostly all on the cask, with a fine selection of six beers to chose from including Great Newsome, Wantsum, Bosun's and the Butchers Dog home brews.
A top-notch Wantsum 'Black Pig' Baltic porter was my pick.
And the pub also provided an addition to the ongoing mild smut in the gents WC collection...

By my count there are another 8 pubs in Driffield so I feel a pang of guilt that we didn't explore further.  But we had a fair few pubs to visit in Beverley, 15-minutes away by train on the line back to Hull.  

Beverley was wet.  And busy.
I was here at Easter when I called in to the Dog & Duck, White Horse, and Atom, which I mention by way of explaining why I excluded these this time around.
Our first port of call faced the market square and looked as though it would be a good option for lunch.

Green Dragon (51 Saturday Market, Beverley, HU17 8AA)
And lots of other folk in Beverley had had the same idea.  We just managed to grab the last available table, whilst other groups wandered the length of the pub forlornly and proclaimed they'd 'just have to go back to Wetherspoon's'.  We found ourselves sat in the middle of the front room, prime position for the fire place and TV above it showing darts from Ally Pally.
Darts is one of those sports that I rarely pay attention to, but put me in front of TV with it on and I'm hopelessly hooked.

The Green Dragon is an historic coaching inn, although most historic touches seem to have been wiped out over the years during the creation of a tourist-friendly dining pub.
A traditional selection of cask ales adorned the bar: Tetley, Black Sheep, 'Landlord', and 'Wainwright'.  I don't think the Tetley Cask makes it any further south than Coventry, so that's what I picked - easy to drink and doing the job of washing down lunch.

With the rain having stopped outside and the darts finished, we strolled down to the visit the Minster, then called into the nearby Monks Walk Inn.

Monks Walk Inn (19 Highgate, Beverley, HU17 0DN)
This was our most historic pub of the day - a 13th century merchants warehouse, becoming a pub known as the George in the 17th century and once having their own brewery attached.

The main doorway takes you into a passageway which runs through to another street to the rear.  Left off the passage is a pool room, right is a choice of two doors leading to rooms either side of a central bar.
I hadn't expected the Monks Walk to be open this early in the day, let alone packed to the rafters.

Ossett 'Butterley', Sharp's 'Atlantic', Half Moon 'Lunar' and Jolly Boys 'Jolly Collier Porter', were the cask choices along the bar, once you'd squeezed your way through to get there.
We managed to fit on the end of the table of a card-playing family where I enjoyed the quality Jolly Boy porter.  I may have enjoyed it more if I had a cosy perch in the corner, but felt rather in the way where we were sat and was ready to move on after a swift half.

The Chequers Micropub (15 Swaby's Yard, Beverley, HU17 9BZ)
Situated in a a quiet square off the pedestrian walkway, the Chequers opened in 2013.
Without enough floor space to stand and loiter at the bar it's table service (still sending 2020 shivers  down my spine) although it's well done by a friendly attentive member of staff looking after a handful of tables on two levels.
I did get the chance to peruse the pump clips close-up and make a fine selection of the 7% IPA, 'Modern Love' by North Riding Brewery. 
Just as well, because the beer menu on the table was confusing at first glance...

A super list with lots of good beers lined up.
Foolishly, I ordered a second beer, having spotted the Azvex 'Stocking Filler Nostalgia' on the keg list.  You don't win any awards for common sense picking 12% Imperial Stouts in the middle of the afternoon, but - WOW! - it was absolutely superb.

A great place.  And they'd put up the Hook Norton signage to ensure we didn't feel homesick for Oxfordshire.

Moving on, in a remarkably straight line considering the ABVs of the last two beers, we headed through the darkening streets of Beverley to my final GBG 24 tick in the town.

Royal Standard Inn (30 North Bar Within, Beverley, HU17 8DL)
This was a traditional town boozer just to the north of the market square, with a small front bar and more spacious lounge area to the rear.  We settled on cushioned bench seating in the front room which is where all the rest of the custom was at the time.
A no-nonsense cask selection - Black Sheep, Wainwright or Doom Bar.
The Black Sheep 'Best Bitter' was...hmmm..okay.  Perhaps I'd been spoilt by the fine ales in the Chequers.

Everyone from that front bar left whilst we were there - I don't think it was anything I did or said.  So a promising pub visit that turned out to be a little bit dull by the time we returned glasses and said goodbye to the landlord.

There was an unwise stop at Atom on the way back to the station for an imperial stout and festive themed loaded fries - neither of which I really needed.
Then a short train ride back to Hull where we set off eastbound from the station.

My sense of direction to get to the Alexandra Hotel was perfect - if only we hadn't been scuppered by the un-crossable four-lane A62 where we needed to find a bridge or underpass.  Several alleyways through the housing estate and we found a way to the southern side of the main road, the pub looking gloriously welcoming... 

Alexandra Hotel (69 Hessel Road, Hull, HU3 2AB)
The Alexandra was built for the Hull Brewery Company in 1895 by local architects Smith, Broderick & Lowther.  It's a striking Victorian building with some ornate brickwork, the old Bass pub sign swinging in the wind, and a mosaic floor in the entryway sporting the name of the hotel.

A big curving bar offered four handpumps with Thornbridge 'Jaipur', Front Row 'Pause' porter, Great Newsome 'Frothingham Best', and Linfit 'Nelson Sauvin' available on our visit.

There's a tall decorated ceiling, extending the feeling of spaciousness within the pub.  We settled on comfy fixed seating along the wall beyond the pool table, entertained by one of the locals doing a stunning job of knocking out a medley of contemporary tunes on the piano.
The Linfit pale ale went down a treat and I was most content to end the evening in this incredible pub.

The Alexander Hotel has limited opening of Thur-Sun 4pm-11pm, so isn't the easiest place to tie into a visit to Hull.  But, if you get the chance, do make the trek down Hessel Road to visit it - you won't be disappointed.

That brought this trip to Hull to close.  It's only since I got home that I realised we really needed twice as long there to visit all the great looking pubs which I missed.  Oh well, it's always nice to have something to look forward to next time.

Hull Awaits

It's been five years since I last visited Hull, back in the days when I was able to get Forest tickets for away games and when my night-time pictures were even worse than they are now.
So, here's the report of the return visit at the end of December '23 and a handful of pubs in two parts of the city.

We arrived just after midday and checked into the Holiday Express, our room with a view over the rooftop car park of the St Stephen's Shopping Centre (we've had worse, to be fair).
Our three hours of Humber sunshine didn't materialise until the following morning, so off we set under grey skies and drizzle, buffeted by some vicious winds.  Reckless pub ticking in a yellow weather warning.

Furley & Co (18-20 Princes Dock Street, Hull, HU1 2LP)
We came across Furley & Co more by chance than planning, spotting it was a current beer guide entry which would provide us with much needed food and shelter.
Situated in a former shipping warehouse, it's more cafe than pub inside: brightly lit, cake stand, pots of tea, and plates being whisked to tables which were mostly all occupied on our arrival by a very mixed crowd.

To one side of the bar there were three handpumps offering cask from Marstons, Great Newsome and Black Sheep.  The run of keg taps served Spanish lager, Belgian fruity stuff, and a few interesting Yorkshire crafty concoctions.
A 5.4% porter from Turning Point called 'The Festive' for me, accompanying our wraps and fries.

A short walk through the streets of the old town took us to a second bar of the afternoon, Vintage...

Vintage (28 Silver Street, Hull, HU1 1JG)
This featured a great eye-catching frontage - although it's about time for last summer's hanging baskets to come down.  Inside, this old jewellers shop is lit by a chandelier and has a gallery of artwork for sale covering the wall opposite the bar.  It was just a shame that it was completely empty when we visited - not the first time I've disturbed a staff member from their comfy armchair during my recent pub visits.

There were two available real ales on the bar - Ossett 'White Rat' or Timothy Taylor 'Landlord' alongside a Lilleys cider. 
But wow!  The White Rat was on absolutely superb form here - probably the best pint of this beer that I've had to date.

The row of retro Playboy covers on the wall above the door gave a clue that Vintage would provide an entry into the ongoing 'Mild Smut in the Gents WC' series.
And indeed they did...

 
Cripes.

The Old Town provides ample venues for a hefty pub crawl with very short distances to crawl.  Which isn't always a good thing, so we'd planned our evening to take in a couple of places in the HU5 postcode and give us a bit of exercise.
For now though, our next venue was just a few doors along the same road as Vintage..

Scale and Feather (21 Scale Lane, Hull, HU1 1LF)
This turned out to be quite a modern design within an old building - bar at the front with a fair number of locals propping it up (and getting in the way of seeing the pump clips properly). 
Beyond the bar, it was red and black leather banquet seating, with some moody lighting and a nice display of framed album covers on the wall.

We took a seat with Echo & the Bunnymen's 'Killing Moon' never sounding better, and Ilkley Brewing Company's 'Ilkley Pale' never tasting better.
That was just one of a good choice of around six cask beers, whilst the pick of the kegs was a chocolate biscuit and marshmallow stout from Yonder or one of Vault City's more unusual sours.

One place that eluded me in 2018 was the Heritage listed Olde Black Boy - uncomfortably packed to the rafters when we tried to squeeze to the bar last time we were here.  So I was tempted in when we saw it had opened earlier than my research had suggested, with room at the inn this time.

Ye Olde Black Boy (150 High Street, Hull, HU1 1PS)
It wasn't quiet though, with all tables taken in the small front room, and a bunch of folk making a fair bit of noise and standing by the bar in the back.
Real ale options were JW Lees 'Bitter', Butcombe 'Best', or Wye Valley 'HPA'.  A couple of odd choices in this part of the world I thought, sticking with the Lees which continued the afternoon's run of beers on great form.

And this is what I call a pie fridge!

Whilst this is what I call a great pub room...
Full of character, bench seating, old beer bottles on the shelves, and a model train suspended from the ceiling.

We made the 20-minute walk through the town centre, then up Spring Bank and onto Princes Street - evidently a go-to area for some great looking independent food outlets and a couple of bars, including Pave...

Pave (16-10 Princes Avenue, Hull, HU5 3QA)
I honed in on the North Riding 'Fudge Brownie Stout' pump clip as soon as we walked into the bar - 7.4%..Fudge Brownie...oh yes!
This was accompanied with a selection of beers to keep most folk happy, including more North Riding options, and brews from Brass Castle and Roosters.
It looks like an old shop unit, with picture windows and a spacious interior, a decent number of early evening customers providing a hum of conversation.

Just a few doors down from Pave was Hull's Atom Brewery flagship venue.

Atom (38 Princes Avenue, Hull, HU5 3QG)
When we were last in Hull, Atom were located in the Old Town pub in Cornmill Exchange, now empty and unused.
Since 2022 they've relocated to this impressive wedge-shaped building which was a branch of the Yorkshire Bank in a previous life.

We arrived in the quiet hour before pub quizzers rocked up to claim their table reservations.
11 taps offered mainly Atom beers along with a couple of guests.  Mrs PropUptheBar picked best, getting the last of the 'Neutron Star' imperial stout.  I got suckered into the lone tap to one side of the bar with 'Crypogenics' on it - a very light and peachy pale ale which was refreshing but perhaps not quite what I wanted.

Pattishack were in permanent residence in the kitchen at Atom, with the patties themselves being a good value filling bite to eat.
And take a look at the merchandise...

We had a ten minute walk to our final pub of the evening. 

St John's Hotel (10 Queens Road, Hull, HU5 2PY)
What a cracking pub to finish with.
The St John's is Grade II listed, built in the 1860's before getting an Edwardian era remodeling in 1904/05 by the Hull Brewing Company.
A central corridor takes you to a corner bar on the left-hand side, more spacious lounge bar to the rear, and one time smoke room to the right, now housing a pool table.

The beer line-up contained several big Marston's names: Rev James, Wainwright, Directors, Old Empire, along with one local Ainsty 'Cool City'.
We sat on bench seats in the toasty warmth of the front bar with Steptoe and Son on the TV.
I think it's fair to say watching sixties sitcoms in a pub was a first for me.

Then we relocated to the pool table in the room to the right of the entry. 
I'd kinda hoped we'd have the room to ourselves long enough to fumble through a game, but no sooner had we started than someone popped 50p on the side and asked if they could have the next game.
Just as long as you're not in a rush, I told him - this was our annual game of pool in the 7th pub of the day and wasn't going to a masterclass!

A productive first day in Hull.  The city had another delight of a pub for me to the visit the following evening on a return from a trip to nearby Beverley.  All of which I'll ramble on about in the next post when I get around to writing it.

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.