The Geldart, Cambridge

Yet another street corner pub in these back streets north away from the station ,but larger than several others and with a strong music themed interior worthy of inspection.There is even an opening window for off sales but no sign that drinking in this residential street is tolerated. Entering via a side door,the rear room has a series of dining tables ,each with a candle and a bit poncey.A back room has an upright piano with assosiated skeleton and then a mini grand piano picked out in lights.The larger tap room has fewer tables than usual,a bit bare,a real firplace and any number of guitars around the picture shelf.Four beer engines have musical instruments as pulls,while bakelite radios and tv's can also be spotted.THe wooden floor gives an ale house feel.It is clear that booking is essential ,although empty at 5.15pm,my table and lots of others were needed by 6pm.Food may well be a draw here,home cooking at work. There were 4 ales to choose from Moonshine Cellermans Stout,Adnams Ghost Ship,New River London Tap and Oakham Citra (NBSS 3.5),justifying it's 2021 GBG listing. One not to miss,I enjoyed my visit and would happily reappear.There is a good sized garden to boot.

I found this quite an interesting pub, and unlike the previous reviewer I didn't think it was soulless, although perhaps a bit clinical in places. But as you enter into the small vestibe you know where to go - a sign to the room on the right says go here for keg, and a sign to the room on the left is for the real ale. The room on the left is the smaller of the two and is of course where the eight handpumps are located. There were "only" six ales on when we visited, but we managed quite nicely with the Oakham Citra. The blackboard on the wall mentioned by Ray is still there, advertising several exotic animals as food. Luckily we weren't looking for anything to eat. The room on the right - the "keg" room - is clearly where diners were more likely to eat as all tables were laid for diners. Music is clearly important in here. They have live music on Wednesdays and Thursdays, an old jukebox sits in the short passageway between the rooms; an old tapedeck is on the end of the bar counter and musical instruments are all over the pub as decor. The light shades in the real ale room are old drumkits, and the menus on the counter in the keg beer room are stuck on old vinyil records, but perhaps the most interesting feature is that the pump handles are actually musical instruments. Also, a big box next to the jukebox contained old vinyl records - obviously unwanted as there was a "help yourself" sign next to it. There was nothing to my taste, but if you were a Billie Jo Spears fan then your luck was in. This is another pub worth including on any crawl of Cambridge.

This was one of the less attractive pubs for me on my day out in Cambridge but it's still worth a look. It's yet another wooden floored pub where food seems to be a major factor. The tables were adorned with lighted candles but at least it was dark. The bar had eight hand pumps but far too many of these were taken up by mainstream beers (Deuchar's IPA, Young's Special and the like). I spotted Rooster's Yankee (£3.50) so went for that and it was in excellent condition.

The Geldart official site with menu and event details - www.the-geldart.co.uk