The King Of The Belgians, Huntingdon

A delightful looking white painted pub on what was obviously once the main road through the original village of Hartford. Multi award winning GBG listed pub, one wall of the public bar is covered with awards, at time of writing it had four current awards, three branch ones and Cambridgeshire Pub of the Year. The room to the left of the building has a counter but appears to be used as a dining room or restaurant. Both counters have four beer engines with a changing selection, today the beers were from Milton, Theakstons, Allsopps and Langton. Both counters had the same beers and a blackboard showed “on next” from similar breweries. A range of local ciders is also available, it’s branch cider pub of the year as well. Keg wise, if it matters, were five national favourites on a low T-bar. The public is nicely furnished with red upholstered benches, stools and chairs at Britannia or old wooden tables. As well as the awards the decor is pictures and posters for local events, horse brasses on the not so old beams and covering the low ceiling a large collection of air force related stickers, many from US outfits. A display of photos on one wall relates to RAF Alconbury. Clearly an old building, Camra claims 16th century (!) , nothing internal looks that old, even the punters are just middle aged. Definitely a decent village pub though with screen (off) and piped music alas on.

A splendid local pub in what was once a village but has now been subsumed by Huntingdon. Two rooms with a dining room to one side and the main bar to the other. There's a fair amount of aged woodwork, and lots of assorted tut dangling from the walls and rafters. Four handpumps offered a superb Wolf Sirius Dog Star along with Barnwell Bitter, Sharp's Twin Coast and Nene Valley Manhattan Project, with Cromwell Cider also available. Food is traditional pub stuff, home made and very good. A good pub that is worth the long trek (or bus ride) from town.

The King of the Belgians is a bit of a walk north of Huntingdon, and even further from where I started my drunken hike in Godmanchester, but it was worth it for the country village cottage vibe. The larger tile floored bar to the left was empty apart from an aged dining couple, so I opted for the small public bar to the right where 15 or so locals had assembled to make it comfortably busy. An L-shaped serving counter serves both bars, and in the public bar it is found across the rear wall to the left where there are also bar stools. I sat on one of the small tables along the front wall opposite the counter with the bulk of people sat on the standard furniture to my right. There’s lots of aircraft stickers across the ceiling above the bar area and on the walls are lots of awards and certificates. There’s an old fireplace in the left wall adjacent to the counter where some board games are piled up next to more pub related things. There are no televisions, that I could see, but there was some low background music from the last century playing. From the bar, a premium and standard keg range was available alongside Camden Hells, and the four hand pumps were drawing Mighty Oak Brewing’s Mars Azzacs, St Austell’s Cornish Best, Wily Fox Brewery’s Dublin Up, Castle Rock Brewery’s Harvest Pale. There’s also a large real cider range courtesy of Cromwell Ciders, and a coming soon board which is always good to see. I assume this is an affluent area because the average age of the locals was mid-60s, it was nice to feel so young. I liked the staff and there was a good chatty atmosphere, so I’d make the walk up here again, just maybe not from the other side of the Great Ouse.

A traditional town boozer with a GBG entry. The car park is tiny and has an even tinier smoking terrace next to it. The garden was completely covered with a marquee so it wasn't possible to see what it was like. The smaller bar, named 'Lounge/Kitchen' was entirely laid to table and had no-one in it. The main Public bar was quite lively and had a very convivial atmosphere. The pub runs theme nights including Thai food night, race night, Beer and Cheese night and various quizzes. The staff appeared a bit vague, but they were competent enough, and their beer was on top form, vindicating the GBG entry: Goff's Lancer, 2 from Adnams and one from Banks. Food was very good value too – home-cooked pub grub, no fuss, just proper meals, which they supplement with home-made pizzas. This is the sort of pub I'd be very happy visiting for an afternoon's drinking or a quiet evening out with friends.

The left hand bar is for food only and the main entrance to the tap room is to the right of the pub. Four real ales on hand pump including a good 4.8 ABV IPA, Nice pub.

This is a wonderful olde worlde pub that is a privately owned free house. It is a single storey cottage dating from around 1540 which has two rooms and a couple of dormer windows in the roof. On the right of the entrance is the public bar, this has a copper topped bar counter in the back left corner, an unused ingle nook fire place in the left wall, a small brick fire place with cast iron fire in the right hand wall, green leather bench seats, oak beams and unusually for this type of pub, modern air force badges stuck to the ceiling directly in front of the bar. These are due to regular visits by the USAF personnel from Alconbury up the road which is now closed. On the left of the entrance is the restaurant area, this has a tiled floor, small counter in the back right corner, half timber walls and modern pine dining furniture. At the back of the public bar is a corridor that leads to a nice flowery beer patio behind the pub. Regular ale is currently Fullers London Pride with two changing guest beers which on my visit were Slater’s Top Totty and Hydes Swift Delivery (GBG 2011). I sampled all three and considered them to be in good condition. I noted with interest that every one of the dozen or so people in the pub during my visit was drinking the real ale. A great country village style pub which was well supported by the friendly locals who helped to create a good atmosphere. The pub was originally named The King of the Prussians who were allies of the British during the Napoleonic Wars, but it was renamed during the First World War as Prussia was one of the founding states that formed Germany in 1871. I was in the area for a couple of days on business and this pub was recommended to me by the landlord of the Victoria in Huntingdon, which I thought was surprisingly supportive of a potential competitor. I am very grateful as I really enjoyed my visit and I would definitely return if in the area again.