The Painters Arms, Luton

I called in before a recent Luton Town home game and found four hand pumps on the bar but only one beer available: Tring Side Pocket for a Toad, my favourite from that brewery. The young landlord, who gives the impression of being fairly new to the pub and possibly to the licensed trade too, had difficulty getting the frothy beer into the glass, but it tasted ok. The room to the front had been locked shut - the kerfuffle with the beer meant that I forgot to ask why - and I stayed in the main room to drink my beer. There were two TV screens showing lunchtime kick-offs from both Sky and BT Sport, though the sound was kept down on one of the games; there was no music on at the time of my visit. I hope they persevere with real ale here, but they're up against it with the excellent Bricklayers Arms just down the road. That pub is so popular that it is bursting at the seams on match days, so I for one would be happy to call in here if I knew there were going to be two or three decent beers on. Date of visit: 21st September 2019

The magnificent tiled exterior of this old Benskins pub is just a prelude to the equally magnificent and historically important interior. (See http://www.heritagepubs.org.uk/pubs/pubguide.asp.) The wrap-around central bar serves several different rooms, each identified in frosted glass on their doors. There is a newer-looking archway between the private bar and the lounge, but otherwise the layout is much as it would have appeared when the pub was built 100 years ago, and much of the decorative tiling and the wood and glass screens remain intact, or have been well preserved. Unfortunately there is no real ale, though rumours are often heard that this may change. At present there is a solitary hand pump in the public bar, but no one I have spoken to has ever seen it in use. The only non-lagers are Stowford Press Cider, Guinness and Caffreys. I had the Guinness, my first for over 20 years, and while it was perfectly drinkable it was very cold and almost devoid of taste. This lovely pub really deserves a sensitively applied bit of love and affection, and a few hand pumps with some decent local ales, to make it the best pub in Luton by miles.