The City Arms, Canterbury

Another historic pub on Butchery Lane, the City Arms was first recorded as The Morocco all the way back in 1692 before becoming known as the Angel and Castle, which then changed over time to Angelo's Castle, eventually settling on its present name in 1892. Like much of this side of Butchery Lane, the pub was damaged during bombing raids in WWII, but suffered worse damage when a fire broke out in 2002, putting the place out of action for almost three years. The pub today is a simple, single room affair, with the servery running along the right hand wall and a partly screened seating area at the back of the room breaking the space up a bit. The décor is a bit sparse but this didn't really bother me and I thought the vibe was befitting of a proper drinkers pub. This is the sister pub to the nearby Foundry Brewpub and so you can normally expect to find a couple of their beers on the bar along with offerings from Kent micros such as Canterbury or Gadds. Unfortunately, I neglected to make a note of the options on my recent visit, but I ended up with a lovely pint of IPA style beer which flew out of the glass. Although I only managed a flying visit here, I thought this was a calm, peaceful spot in amongst the chaos of tourists and shoppers outside and I would be very keen to make a return and sample more of their beers the next time I'm in town.

I found this modernised 15th century city centre pub quite relaxing this weekend, aided by its ‘football free zone’ policy. The four ales available from hand pump were all from Canterbury’s foundry brewery, and there were some bottled ales available from Gadds and Hopdaemon and some Belgian ones as well. It serves food from 12-5 every day, with main courses from £6.50 to £9.95 for the steak, though we weren’t ready for food when we visited. The Biggleston’s Brown Ale tasted rather better than I’d expected it to, and I wish we’d had time to stay here and try the rest of the range. I’d be very happy to come here again.