The Old Kings Head, Belper

Facebook page of The Old Kings Head - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Old Kings Head - www.facebook.com

This is a nice old stone building in the old part of town, which has the feel of a separate village, and this is reflected in the pub's atmosphere. It's quite compact, with what I would imagine were originally two small rooms made into one - I didn't explore the upstairs room mentioned by a previous reviewer. The landlady was friendly and chatty, and there was a bank of five hand pumps on the small bar: Marstons Pedigree was doubled up, and there were also Brakspears Bitter and one or two others from the Marstons stable whose names I have been unable to decipher from the notes I made. I was offered the Brakspears without the sparkler, which is a nice touch, and this was a very good beer. The décor of old branches painted white and festooned with fairy lights would perhaps not meet with everyone's approval, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment and I would certainly return.

On visiting Belper, I couldn't find anything out about this pub at all, and we went in purely on spec as last call on Sunday evening, I think they had four good hand pull beers on, and it seemed a really friendly welcoming pub, busy in the downstairs bar, it was quiz night with free food, but the landlady said there was some room upstairs so we sat up there.