The Alexandra Arms, Kettering

An Edwardian brick built double fronted pub on the edge of the town centre, inside is more unexpected. As said before the old photo on the pub sign shows the left hand side is a later addition and extension to the old pub. It’s now a two room pub with central servery offset to the right. The front room walls and ceilings are liberally covered in pump clips with occasional Camra pub of the year awards, brewery ads and ephemera, a disused two pull set sits against one wall and there’s a couple of handles on a shelf of stuff. Ten working pulls grace the counter in here with a further five in the rear bar. Beers on sale are a mix from across the country including local brewery Potbelly who lease the gaff, so I was glad to see a couple from Mallinsons to get a change from the East Midlands predilection with malty brown liquids. They ran of out clips for the back bar which is much plainer but has darts, table skittles of a local variety and a couple of keg T-Bars. Finished in alehouse style as well as the clips etc it has bare boards, fairly chunky wooden chairs and tables on cast iron bases. Popular with older gentlemen on my visit I was surprised it’s not a current GBG pub although it probably has been.

The major draw of the Alexandra is the ever changing selection of cask ale and cider that is available from the fifteen hand pumps that are spread across the front and rear bars. The pub is wooden floored throughout with simple décor. The walls and ceilings are completely covered in old pump clips, I wasn’t surprised to read that this pub has been a real ale pub for many years. The central front entrance leads to the front bar where tables, chairs, bucket seats and armchairs are found to the left and the bar counter is located on the rear wall to the right. In the rear is a second bar where a limited selection of standard keg is also hidden. In here is a dartboard and a television that was showing World Cup football via BBC. The staff and customers were friendly and I left knowing that I will return when next in the area.

This pub looks relatively modern from the outside but the sign has an old picture of a pub building here where the left side of the current building is a ladies hairdressers. Maybe it got bombed in the war. The Mannings Brewery sign in the picture refers to a Northampton Brewery near the Railway Station that was taken over by Phipps in 1933 so this was probably once a Watney's pub. On the left above the bar inside is an old Watney's Special (there was nothing "special" about it!) tray that supports that theory. You enter into a wooden floored front room with the small bar on the right and just tables and seating to the left. In front there is a narrow corridor that leads to the back bar which is a long narrow room with a wooden floor and the other side of the bar area at the top end and darts & Northants skittles at the other. This is a "beer festival" pub that has been around some time so the walls and ceiling of the front bar are literally covered in pump clips. I didn't count the hand pumps on the front bar but it was at least ten and the back bar had around four. One of the front ones had a cider. There was a huge beer selection including Nobby's (who no longer brew here), Potbelly, Jenning's, Marston's Revisionist, Bude, Church End, Burton Bridge, Abbeydale, Skinners and Lincoln Green. I went for the local Potbelly Crazy Daze (£3.40) and Nobby's Swift Nick (£3.15). Sadly the Potbelly beer was in poor condition but the Swift Nick was good. This isn't a large pub so their claim of selling 14 beers seems too much. I might have just been unlucky with the Crazy Daze but I'm prepared to mark it down only one point for the dodgy pint.