Hales Bar, Harrogate

Beautiful 2 roomed pub, bar feels like a cellar, with flagged floor, low brick behind the bar & small barrels. There is also a woodburner making it warm and comfortable. The lounge has lovely padded leather booths as well as bizarre gas bunsens on the bar. Lovely relaxing pub.

Called in here earlier this evening. Got alot of happy memories from years gone by. Requested a pint of real ale that was advertised as available - only to be told that following a busy weekend there were vitually no real ales available.

A sign outside this historic town centre venue notes that this is Harrogate's oldest pub and it's fair to say that the place exudes a sense of bygone times from it's well preserved interior, even if the banging music that greeted my Saturday evening visit was doing its best to upset this impression. The main bar is to the right of the front entrance and has bare floorboards and the servery down the left hand side. The counter has a Victorian water font whilst the bar back is well worth closer inspection, with several large spirit barrels on show, a tap pouring a beer from the Daleside Brewery and a sign reading 'Ales and Porters Supplied to the Gentry for Over a Century'. Some remarkable avian taxidermy has been put on display above the bar back and wouldn't look out of place in a natural history museum. Some carpeted U-shaped banquette booths are on the wall opposite the bar, with a few low stools thrown in to supplement the seating options, and walls are decorated with various brewery mirrors and portraits of Queen Victoria. To the rear is a larger U-shaped banquette surrounded by more taxidermy in a space dominated by a huge old gas lamp. The gas lighting in here is a real highlight and adds considerably to the ambiance of the room. The bar was absolutely packed on my visit and I had to huddle in a corner to avoid getting in everyone's way. To the left of the entrance there is a smaller lounge with a basic servery to the rear. The room is on a slightly lower level to the main bar and has a quarry stone floor with standard and high stool seating throughout. A nice fireplace stands on the right hand wall, whilst the left side displays some fancy modern wallpaper. Large mirrors, busts and carriage clocks should give you a sense of the décor within. The ale range was quite wide but less adventurous than in Harrogate's top ale houses. The options on this visit were Daleside Old Leg Over and Hales Ale, Bass, Fullers London Pride, Robinsons Dizzy Blonde and Taylor's Landlord. I tried the Old Leg Over, but it seemed a bit flat and lifeless. This is a really interesting historic pub which is well worth a visit to explore the main bar and marvel at the gas lamps. However, I felt it let itself down a bit in terms of the ale range, whilst the crowds on my visit made it difficult to get comfortable, although I suspect an afternoon visit would resolve this problem. A mixed bag and one that I would probably drop from future crawls, having now seen the interior.

You do feel as though you have stepped back in time to the Victorian era when you enter this pub. The pub is dimly lit to attract your view to the gas pipes on the bar and gas lighting on the back wall. Six Ales on our visit, mostly boring brown ales as far as I could make out. We went for the Daleside Hales ale, which was pretty no descript in flavour, one visit here was enough for us.

It’s all about the historic/characterful interior with this one. The main features are well-described elsewhere but the main thing of note is the gas lighting, which also extends to what look like a couple of inbuilt Bunsen burners at the bar, emitting a continuous licking orange flame (apparently these were for gentlemen to light their tobacco from?). Those of a furry-hugging disposition may wish to avert their eyes from the massed ranks of taxidermy on display. Various bits of Victoriana, from mirrors to framed pictures of old Harrogate via a row of whisky barrels behind the bar. The two large burgundy button-back alcove seats looked like a great place to sup. Some interesting pub characters in situ may not be to everyone’s taste, the one we encountered has probably left a string of donkeys missing their hind legs in his wake. Four ales on; two from Daleside, also Bass and TT Landlord. The latter drank pretty well. Quiz fact is that the interior was used to shoot some scenes in Chariots of Fire. A default stop if you’re a first-time crawler of Harrogate.