The White Horse, Hertford

Am paying a few visits to this one currently as I have friends who are working for the new landlord of the last six months. This one continues to suffer from a regular turnover of Landlords and hopefully the current one can make a decent fist of it. I hope so as this is a fantastic historic pub and one of the best remaining Tudor buildings in Hertford. And the initial signs are good as the ales have been excellent on my recent visits. Situated on Castle Street opposite Hertford Castle it is part of three timber framed houses that were originally built sometime in the 16th and early 17th centuries and were extended in the 19th century. Numbers 31 and 33 are now the pub whose earliest reference for use as a beer house is 1838. Two smallish rooms downstairs you enter into the smaller bar room to the right. This section of the bar has three hand pumps but also a chalk board detailing all beers available as there are an additional line of handpumps and the keg taps in the larger room to the left which is the one favoured by the locals. And me due to its two-tone wood panelling and collection of breweriana, especially the impressive Cotleigh Brewery beer signs, a hangover from the days pre Fullers, when it was a Free House. The current landlord is trying to make more use of the upstairs rooms, that are accessed by a door and steep staircase to the back of the right hand room. Even if they are not open when you visit ask to take a look, as its really only when you get up here that you fully appreciate the timber frame of this building and the age of some of the brickwork. Here there are two additional rooms , referred to as the Henry VIII and Elizabeth I rooms due to the portraits that hang here. But the right-hand room with the Elizabeth I portrait is also known as the Vinyl room, as it has a vinyl record deck and speaker set up and you can bring in your own LP’s to play. Then there are two further but plainer spaces used as the games rooms, one set up for darts and the other with a free to play bar billiards table. Currently four fullers beers are kept on with Pride and ESB being permanent, and the other two rotating from the Fullers stable. Recently these have included Seafarers, Dark Star Hop Head and Dark Star Skylab. It currently doesn’t open until 2 during the week as they are currently not doing food. Personally, I think this works better for the vibe of the pub as its ideally suited as a wet led ale house But the Guvnor will have to turn a profit, so it is likely to return in some fashion.

A small and gloriously-unspoilt pub on the edge of town. As noted below, two rooms with not a great deal to choose between them but both oozing tradition and history with few, if any, distractions. Ales on were London Pride, ESB and Hophead.

This pub is summed up very nicely by BF below. It is on CAMRA's Regional Inventory of pubs with historic interiors, mainly because of the unspoilt room on the left (signed as the "Trough"), and is also Grade II Listed. The room on the right (signed as the "Swill") was brought into pub use as late as the 1970s, although the building could be as old as the 17th Century. As to the beers, they had on much of the Fuller's range of London Pride, ESB, Gales Seafarers and Oliver's Island. The two guest beers were the Darkstar pair of hophead and APA - if Darkstar can be regarded as a guest brewery in a Fuller's pub. This is another delightful Hertford pub well worth a visit.

Was shut Monday lunchtime. Check the opening hours!

Unfortunately since my previous review this pub has gone through some troubled times. The then landlord left fairly soon after my previous posting and since then a string of temporary landlords and relief managers have come and gone, all failing to make a go of running this place, with Fullers seemingly taking a lot of the blame for that. However on my visit last weekend the current one has been in place for a few months now and seems to be making a fist of it. Still the standard fullers range and my pint of Pride was well kept. Its had a bit of a makeover since my last visit which has modernised it a bit, but fortunately most of the traditional fixtures and fittings remain. Fortunately I managed to avoid coming here during its recent dark days and my visit found it on the way back up. Although it still has a long way to go to reach the heady heights of when it was a Free House before Fullers took the tie.