The Coach & Horses, Shrewsbury

Dating back to 1861, the Coach and Horses is an excellent street corner pub with a restaurant area in a relatively modern extension. The pub has a two bar set up, with the main bar accessed from a door on the street corner. This room has bare brick walls with some panelling, but not a great deal of room for seating except for some low stools and a banquette along the front wall. There is a decent sized fireplace on the end wall and the room has been decorated with a lot of ‘Gentle Art of Making Guinness’ adverts. A passageway leads through to the lounge bar, passing a small snug on the way, which has a long angular banquette running around it. The bare brick and stone lounge bar is fairly small, but made to feel bigger by virtue of the fact that it merges into the surprisingly large L shaped restaurant. There were a lot of diners in this carpeted space during my Saturday evening visit and it was difficult to have a look round without getting in the way with one of the many busy waitresses. I didn’t manage to get a look at the menu, but there was a board on the wall detailing the desserts which looked very tempting. Five ales were available at the bar – Salopian Oracle and Shropshire Gold, Stonehouse Station Bitter, Phoenix Arizona (£2.95) and Six Bells Aires – whilst the last two hand pumps were dispensing real ciders. The Arizona was in fine shape and good value at under £3 for a pint. The place was well staffed and service was prompt and very friendly. This pub is well worth including on any crawl around town. It has a good range of beers, an interesting layout and friendly staff. With the Admiral Benbow virtually next door, it is well worth heading away from the main streets to sample probably the best double header in town.

Came in here after my visit to the Admiral Benbow next door. Nice interior with wooden beams and a traditional tap room. I can't remember the name of the ale as at this point I was rather intoxicated. I had been supping Black Bush Irish Whiskey in the previous place. However, I do remember eating some handcut chips which were lovely. It did slightly help soak up some of the latter mentioned whiskey! I wish I had looked in to the other rooms. Recommended.

This is a traditional Victorian era street corner pub situated just outside the main shopping area at the junction of Swan Hill and Cross Hill. The street corner entrance leads into an attractive and welcoming quarry tiled public bar room with boarded wood panelling, fixed seating, circular tables, some exposed brickwork by the fireplace and an original looking wooden bar counter. Effectively forming part of this bar is an unusual separate screened wood panelled snug which was once probably a separate room, although the door is no longer in place. In this room is a Bass mirror. Between the end of the public bar counter and the snug, a short passageway leads through to a larger lounge bar and restaurant area with subdued lighting and a cosy comfortable atmosphere. Food has a good reputation here – outside we learn that the Head Chef was a Masterchef semi finalist recently – and, notably, on my descent back into town afterwards, a German couple asked me for directions as they had heard it was a good place for lunch. Although it is not immediately obvious, the lounge bar and restaurant is an extension to the original pub – a former terraced house which blends in well with the original pub building. A blackboard in the public bar lists the real ales on with 3 pumps in the public bar and a further 2 in the lounge. On my recent mid-Sptember visit, 2 Purple Moose beers were on ( Snowdonia Ale and Ysgawen ) plus 2 from Salopian together with Stonehouse Station Bitter ( from Oswestry ). Beers sampled were in good form and the pub is a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular. During busy meal times, service in the public bar appeared to be what might be described as “intermittent”. Worth seeking out when in town. Just don’t let the rather contemporary untraditional pub sign discourage you.

A street corner pub a little way of the main thoroughfare that means it probably gets something less in the way of passing trade than many nearby establishments, but is well worth seeking out. The main bar at the front has much wood panelling on the walls, as well as matching woodwork around the bar. Elsewhere the wall is exposed brick, and there are red quarry tiles on the floor. Dotted around the walls were various comedy sketches relating to Guinness that were presumably used as adverts at some point. At one end was a brick chimney with a log fire and off to the other side is a hexagonal snug area made with more wood panelling. To the rear is another smaller bar counter but this area looks to be predominantly used for dining. It looked to be an attractive, cosy spot and had we been staying another night in Shrewsbury I would have tried it for something to eat. I didn’t check the menu but did notice a couple of boards that were advertising Sunday Roasts and Thursday Fish nights. Beers on tap were Purple Moose Snowdonia Ale, Stonehouse Station Bitter, Shropshire Gold and Oracle from Salopian and Three Tuns XXX. Note that these beers on split between the front and rear bars, although a board at the end of the bar lists them all. Ciders were Thatcher’s Gold and Cheddar valley.