The John Harvey Arms, Whitchurch, Bristol

A fairly non-descript estate pub, typical of the type of building that was chucked up in the 1970’s or thereabouts. In it’s previous incarnation as The Baccy Jar it had a rather unsavoury reputation but has since had a makeover which included a change of name. On first impressions I wasn’t even sure if it was still open as there was not a single car in the car park. The pub is currently up to let, and I overheard the friendly barman saying that he would be leaving at the beginning of May, so I guess the future is currently a little uncertain. The lounge bar is called the Marie Celeste, and this seemed appropriate seeing as it was completely deserted on a recent Thursday lunchtime. The area around the bar sports a flagstone floor, and there is a larger raised area with pine flooring, a couple of leatherette sofa’s, a handful of tables and quite a bit of empty space. The walls are a curious red and white colour scheme. The other bar is more sports orientated with a pool table, projector screen and a rather drab brown colour scheme. The food offering seemed to be predominantly pizza’s, either to eat in or take away and some of these were available as part of a meal deal with a pint for £5.99 which seems reasonable value. There was also a small “specials” board with some of the more usual pub grub dishes such as a chilli and ham, egg & chips. Unfortunately there is no outside seating, and in fact the pub doesn’t have a license to serve drinks outside which is obviously a major drawback during the current unseasonably hot weather. That, together with the £2.55 charged for an orange juice and lemonade may account for why I was the only punter in there, although a small group of old boys did turn up later on. The solitary beer on tap was Courage Best. Ciders were Blackthorn and Thatcher’s Gold.