White Hart, Loughborough

Painted a striking shade of blue and white on the outside, this GBG2025 listed pub is a dark candle lit single room. Apart from some bench seating in the corners it’s furnished with a mix of farmhouse kitchen tables and old fashioned copper topped round ones. The counter is to the rear right with a couple of T-Bars and solos, all standard brands, the six pulls had a mix of local beers from Shiny, Charnwood and Leatherbritches plus Yorkshire interlopers from Brass Castle and Taylors and southerners Three Acres. Brewery mirrors and ads form the decor and they have a selection of CAMRA awards on display. There’s a large beer garden out the back. Friendly staff but low on atmosphere.

This 'Pub | Kitchen | Garden' was exceptionally busy on my early Thursday evening visit, and with a mostly young crowd in too, so it must be doing things right. I abandoned my plan to eat, partly because I couldn't find a proper table space in the bar and it was too wet to sit outside, and also the wait could have been overlong. Anyway, the beer choice and quality was exactly as you would hope to find in a Good Beer Guide listed pub, with Landlord, a pair from Leatherbritches, Salvation and Vixen (£4.60) from Charnwood and North Riding's Oatmeal Stout.

Official site of White Hart - benpimlico.com

Official site of White Hart - benpimlico.com

Simple single room pub just off of the town centre ring road, which has been opened out from a former two room set-up, as evidenced by some retained sections of partitioning wall that are dotted through the centre of the room from front to back. The space is bare boarded with walls that have been painted in a warm shade of purple down one side and a far blander shade pretty much everywhere else. The servery is to the right and has a nice traditional panelled counter with a beautifully worked dark wood bar back centrepiece, flanked by sets of rather plain shelves. Tables and chairs fill up much of the room, with banquettes under the front windows and a couple of tub chairs here and there. Walls have been decorated with old brewery adverts and mirrors plus a great old beer engine which has been squeezed into a nook on the left. There are three very pleasant fireplaces around the room, at least one of which boasted a nice painted tile surround, and these provided some much-needed warmth on a cold Winter’s evening and worked well with the muted lighting to help create quite a cosy ambiance. A garden to the rear wasn’t explored on this visit and there were some good tunes playing in the background, although often lost under the chatter of a decent mid-week evening crowd. The pub felt a bit foodie, with menus lining every available surface, but I couldn’t see a single person eating at 6:30 on a Thursday evening, which helped minimise the impact of the gastro stylings. I was greeted by a very cheery barman and was able to pick between a decent selection of cask ales that comprised Charnwood Salvation, Vixen and Blue Fox, Taylors Landlord and Leatherbritches Ashbourne IPA. The Vixen was a well-kept drop and I enjoyed it whilst watching the comings and goings of what is clearly a popular pub. I quite liked this place but couldn’t fully shake the feeling that I might just as easily have turned up to find it full of diners. It’s a smartly presented pub with some good local ale options and easily reached from any of the town’s other notable ale houses, so adding it to a crawl is a bit of a no brainer.

Different take on a traditional pub, in your face block painting outside, inside its dimmed lighting and candles on tables. I quite liked the snug feel and rustic seating plus the beer was well kept