The Lamplighter, Northampton

Yes, I can confirm, it's definitely dark in this pub, The Lamplighter himself presumably late for work again. Fortunately, there's a few tables and window ledges around the perimeter as well as a beer garden if you need a bit more light than a small candle can provide. Food is available and with frequent deals, while the bar supports 4 handpumps with local breweries represented in a range of styles. There's a few craft keg to supplement the mainstream lagers and Guinness. Friendly service, fair prices and interesting background music makes for a pub well worth visiting.

Official site of The Lamplighter - www.thelamplighter.co.uk

Official site of The Lamplighter - www.thelamplighter.co.uk

Attractive side-street local set on a corner, although the slightly split-level single room interior was surprisingly dimly let when I called in (so it was difficult to take in all the breweriana around the walls). Also has a partly covered yard beer garden at the back, or side, depending on how you look at things. Food also offered, along with regular music events. I found a couple of Roman Way ales - Senate Gold and Aquila (£4.35) - plus Phipps IPA and a cider on the four handpumps.

This is a nice backstreet boozer, just a short walk from the town centre, with a reputation for good cask ale. The pub has a roughly square, open-plan room with the servery to the left and plenty of seating elsewhere. The bar has a nice dark wood counter with a matching mirrored bar back and some of the more impressive, yet not too obtrusive, Halloween decorations I think I’ve ever seen in a pub. The room is bare boarded, but with a few large rugs to help dampen down the noise, plus a small raised carpeted area to the front right, which has seating options but looks like it might also double as a stage for live music. Tables and chairs fill the centre of the room, whilst some high tables and stools have been squeezed into the front left corner, next to the bar. There are a couple of nice old tiled fireplaces to the front and rear, various brewery mirrors on the walls and a nice lincrusta ceiling, all of which add character, and the room benefited from muted lighting, which lent a cosy atmosphere to an otherwise open space. A patio garden could be seen to the rear, with a sizable covered section to one side, whilst a reasonable selection of indie tunes played in the background. There were three cask ales on the bar when I arrived - Phipps Ratcliffe’s Celebrated Stout, NVB Pulping On Your Stereo and Vale VPA. I ordered a pint of the latter, only for it to splutter out its death rattle, but the friendly barman suggested I wait a minute for him to pull through a replacement, Brewster’s Hophead, which he then poured me a lovely fresh pint of. I liked this place and thought it covered a lot of bases pretty well, serving a mixed crowd of punters, offering comfortable seating in a well presented space and serving good quality beer with friendly and helpful service. I do wonder if I would’ve found the place a little less warm and cosy feeling had I come during daylight hours, as it’s ultimately just an open-plan square room, but on this visit, it worked well and I’d be more than happy to return.

Nice use of a back street pub, it is opened up downstairs, looks like for live music so does lose a little character, but there is an upstairs room as well.