The Boot, St Albans Central, St. Albans

Right in the heart of St Albans, opposite the Clock Tower, the Boot is a typical simple city centre boozer with a single U-shaped room layout. The pub has scuffed floorboards throughout with fixed padded bench seating around the perimeter supplemented by plenty of standard chairs. The walls have been decorated with various portraits of iconic musicians (Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen etc...), some old brewery mirrors and a selection of black and white local photos. A prominent sign advertises a full roster of live music and right on cue I was turfed off my table so that they could make a bit of space for a band to set up in the front left corner of the room. The tables to the front right were covered with balloons and party poppers, suggesting that they had been reserved for a private party, although they remained vacated for the duration of my stay. The servery stands in the middle of the rear wall and has a nice angular dark wood counter and low canopy. This was one of a number of St Albans pubs I visited that was visibly protesting the new 73% business rate increases and they had set up an i-pad on the end of the bar counter for people to complete an online petition, which seemed pretty enterprising. The accompanying spiel seemed to suggest that the pub would become unviable within a year or so of the new rates taking effect. A TV screen was turned off to one side of the room but ample Six Nations bunting throughout the pub suggested that live sports coverage gets a good airing in here. The Rolling Stones dominated the pre-gig playlist, albeit at a sensible volume and I noted the day’s papers available on a shelf to the rear left. A trip to the gents was worthwhile to have a good chuckle at the framed Private Eye front pages that covered much of the wall space. For a city centre pub of this nature, the beer range was considerably better than I had expected. Options on this visit were Oakham Citra, Tring Scrum Down and Colley’s Dog, St Austell Proper Job, Adnams Ghost Ship, Wells Bombardier, Wild Beer Millionaire and Vocation Chop and Change (£4.10) - a good mix of established nationals, local brewers and obscurer micros. The Chop and Change was an interesting Black IPA – not entirely to my taste but in good shape nonetheless. This is obviously a pretty old pub, but it’s opened out interior means it has lost much of its traditional appeal, pitching itself now as more of a Jack-of-all-trades type venue. I found it lacking a bit of atmosphere and not all that easy to settle down, but it certainly has some interesting and well conditioned beer to compensate and with its central location it is an easy option to check out whenever in town.

First time I found myself here, a coupla years ago, it was horribly rammed on a Sat nt. Yesterday ~15:00 was a much more pleasant experience, allowing appreciation for the low-ceilinged, old wood-floored, ancient timbered 16c(?) surroundings. Plenty of standing room around the central horseshoe bar & the single large room surrounded by wood furniture & settles. Only one staff on, but pub was pretty quiet & she was more attentive than some erstwhile colleagues. Summer Lightning, Youngs Ord, Directors, Bass, Celt Golden (Caerphilly?), we tried the latter two & both were in great shape.

A nice authentic old pub in the heart of St Albans, low ceiling and beams, 8 hand pulls with a good selection of interesting beers, my Tring Kotuku was rather good as is this pub.