The Canon, Bath

Stonegate student pub, though more popular with the locals by the looks of it. Recently modernised and the dark shades aren't helpful given the lack of natural light. Interesting concession to the locale as draft ciders from Lilley are prevalent on the draft; I went for the Gladiator which didn't drink 8.4%. Good barman who told me that because it was happy hour I could have a pint for 50p extra – I politely declined, given the abv. No cask - two naked pumps. Better than expected, if you like cider then it's worth a nose here. 5.5

Previously Molloy’s,and before that O’Neill’s, it’s now a Stonegate pub, yet they failed to honour the CAMRA voucher scheme, the manager saying he’d never heard of it. In the end it didn’t matter though as there was no real ale, perry or cider on draft as they’d run out, much as Blackthorn describes, below. It was generally pretty low grade, with tacky signs on the walls, noisy customers and overpriced ‘craft’ ales – on this occasion Neck Oil and Brew Dog Pale Ale were the weapons of choice. Live music acts are advertised. I shan’t shell out to drink in here in future.

Refurbished and renamed since my previous visit, it’s a little smaller than I remember and obviously doesn’t have the Irish theme that was present last time, but nor does it have anything of any real note having a slightly chainy feel to it, although I’m not sure who it is actually owned by. Décor wise there are sanded wooden boards on the floor with some inlaid mosaic tiles in the centre, whilst the paint scheme was a real multitude of colours with mauve, pink, burnt orange, battleship grey and salmon colours, plus I’m sure a few others as well. The backdrop behind the bar was clad with butcher’s tiles, whilst a couple of TV’s in the corner were showing a sports channel, although the volume was muted so this was not too intrusive. A notice board advertised regular quiz nights, open mic nights, and so on. Although there were four hand pumps on the bar, three of these appeared unused and the fourth had it’s label reversed so unfortunately no real ales on tap. There were also five numbered “craft ale” taps, with a corresponding menu behind the bar, but even with these only two were in use offering Longhorn IPA and Punk IPA, so a pretty disappointing selection overall. Ciders fared slightly better with Thatcher’s Gold and Strongbow Dark Fruit on tap, along with further taps and a menu on the back wall. Of these, they’d managed to keep on all but two, although the choice was mostly of the fruit variety rather than anything more traditional – Merry Monkey, Fruit Bat in either raspberry, strawberry or blackcurrant flavours, and two others described simply as Mango and Pear & Raspberry.

Official site of The Canon - www.thecanon-bath.co.uk

Official site of The Canon - www.thecanon-bath.co.uk