West End House, Ely

One of the three GBG 2025 listed pubs in Ely, about a 20 minute walk from the Market Place. A low white painted building, possibly early 19th century. Multi-roomed with three front rooms, and a snug behind, a U shaped counter serves two of the front rooms and the snug. Two pulls on one face, just with Lacons Encore, three on another face with Proper Job, Ghost Ship and Taylors Boltmaker in excellent condition even though unsparkled. A T-Bar on each of two faces has the usual collection. Nice old style pub with carpets, banquette seating at cast iron tables and grumpy landlord. Decorated with a load of horse brasses, old photos and various knick-knacks, a collection of whisky jugs is a part of the general stuff. The middle front room is a bit of an RAF shrine with aircraft pictures and Union Jack cushions. There’s a beer garden to the right of the pub. Well worth the walk and you can take in the Prince Albert on the way which is another GBG listed pub.

I started my visit to Ely at this out of centre pub, which funnily enough was to the west of the cathedral city. I'd surmised that it closes during the afternoon on weekdays, before re-opening in the evenings. I'll never know for sure, but the landlord seemed slightly surprised to see a customer walk through the door when I arrived. He asked me what kind of beer I was looking for - lager or ale. I pronounced ale and ventured towards the 2 pumpclips in the front bar. There was a third handpull in another room to the right-hand side. Doom Bar is the regular ale that was on this handpull. The guests in the front room were St Austell Proper Job & Exmoor Exile Wicked Wolf. How ironic was that I'd come to East Anglia and found 3 beers from Devon & Cornwall. The Wicked Wolf was not in the best condition. It was probably the first off of the day, considering there were no other customers inside. Two young ladies did later appear from the garden, but they didn't look like typical ale drinkers. The interior comprises multiple rooms and is all fairly cosy. The front bar had pictures of aircraft on the walls, along with beer equipment in cases and at least one set of horse brasses. Music was playing at an acceptable level, but there was no sign of the cat or dogs!