Fox & Hounds, Ewood, Blackburn

Official site of Fox & Hounds - www.thwaitespubs.co.uk

Official site of Fox & Hounds - www.thwaitespubs.co.uk

This is a large roadside pub on a busy junction just over the road from Blackburn Rover's Ewood Park stadium. The pub is supposedly for home supporters only on match days, but I managed to get in by covering my colours and keeping a low profile. The pub still has something of a multiple room layout, with the entrance taking you directly into the main bar which is carpeted and has half panelled walls with floral wallpaper above. Bench and low stool seating runs in a L-shape around the room, following the shape of the servery which has a most impressive canopy decorated with scenes of the eponymous fox and hounds. There were several TV screens dotted around the room, all rather inexplicably showing The One Show to a disinterested pre-match crowd. Over on the right hand side there are two seating areas located in what essentially amount to separate rooms, even if they have been opened out a little. The rear one had a cosy feel to it, with quarry stone flooring and some great Rovers player montages on the walls, whilst the one to the front seemed a bit brighter and was packed full of supporters during my stay, making it hard to get a good look around. The left side of the pub has a separate public bar, accessed by a corridor to the rear. In addition to some basic seating options, there is a dartboard which is flanked with various trophies won by the pub's team. The whole pub, as you might expect, is filled with all manner of Blackburn Rovers memorabilia including some nice, evocative sketches and paintings of the stadium. There were two Thwaites beers available on handpull when I arrived - Wainwright and Original - with the former being in pretty good nick, perhaps as a result of good throughput over the course of the busy day. The staff provided the kind of swift and efficient service that is vital during busy pre-match periods. This is a pretty good football pub and I thought it was a bit of a shame they couldn't let away fans in, as some good natured banter would've topped off the visit nicely. There's just about enough here to suggest this could be a decent pub outside the match-day period and I wouldn't turn down a return visit.