The Morecambe Hotel, Morecambe

Facebook page of The Morecambe Hotel - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Morecambe Hotel - www.facebook.com

This is a large hotel bar in a grand building, not too far from the seafront. You enter into a spacious room with a quarry stone floor, whitewashed walls to the front and back with stone walls on either side, and some hefty looking beams crossing the ceiling. The bar is opposite the entrance and has a curved, timber fronted counter with a modern bar back that incorporates one of the three brick archways that run along the rear wall. Tables and chairs fill the space under the front windows whilst high tables and stools stand next to the bar and a couple of Chesterfields occupy the rear left corner, beneath a large TV screen that was showing some sort of History of Morecambe promotional video. Some of the tables have glazed tile tops depicting seafaring images, which look quite good in context. A ramp leads up through one rear arch, into a similarly furnished and decorated dining room, although most diners were sat in an extension space to the rear. Taking a right turn at the front entrance, takes you into another dining room and bar, which had plenty more tables and chairs and a load of plain mirrors and local photos on the walls. Pop tunes were playing quietly in the background throughout my time here and there was a modest Saturday evening crowd, mostly in the dining spaces. On the bar, a surprisingly decent ale range awaited, comprising Cross Bay The Blonde, Seven Brewing Copper Ale, Black Sheep Blonde and Bank Top Pavilion Pale Ale (£5.00 a pint), whilst two further pumps went unclipped. The barmaid poured me a woefully short measure and promptly vanished, so I then had a long wait for someone else to appear and provide a top up. Thankfully the beer was in good nick and worth the wait. As Hotel bars go, I thought this was a pretty good one, thanks to a comfortable public bar area and some well-kept ale. The place did seem a little better suited to those hoping to eat here, but that didn't detract from the experience too much and I was pleased that I added this place to my mini-crawl.

Official site of the Morecambe Hotel - www.themorecambehotel.co.uk

Official site of the Morecambe Hotel - www.themorecambehotel.co.uk

Pleasant enough place with six hand pumps, two off and one cider. The rest weak in strength.

The Morecambe Hotel is an agglomeration of a number of buildings and it is not entirely clear which, if any, was the original hotel. A recent refurbishment has at least given a bit of cohesion to the interior, and more importantly, also added a range of hand pumps to the bar. To be honest, if it weren't for those I would have turned around and walked out, because the surroundings are just so much expensive tosh - a fake fireplace to the right on entry: what about a real fire? The staff, all attired like this is a posh hotel - oh, wait a minute, that's what it is! - were doing their best, but it's no good pretending it's a pub when most of the evidence says it's not. Ok, back to the bar. Six hand pumps with four beers on at the time of my visit - which to be fair was out of season. Beers were varied in their origins, with only one from Cross Bay, the local brewery, the others being Purity, Ashover and Butcombe (respectively Warwickshire, Derbyshire and Somerset). This made an interesting destination pub for me and my fellow Luton Town supporters on our recent trip to the seaside, but would I come here regularly if I lived in Morecambe? Hmm, not sure about that. Date of visit: 19th November 2016