The White Swan, Otley

As mentioned below, this historic pub, parts of which date back over 250 years, reopened in August 2013 after an extensive refurbishment which has seen it stake a claim at the forefront of the town's fine real ale scene. The interior, although ostensibly opened out into a single long room, has three very distinctly different areas. You enter into the bar area with the servery along the back wall facing the front door. This is a stone floored space with what looks like a brand new servery. Some banquette and low stool seating is provided under the front windows in a carpeted space with a lit fireplace and various horse brasses on the walls. To the left is a small, cosy room with a few more tables, a dartboard, dominoes and book shelves full of Clive Cussler books. A TV screen was turned on, showing Final Score, but with the sound turned down. The nicest part of the pub seemed to be the lounge down the right hand end of the building. This is the largest of the three spaces and has wooden flooring covered with a few rugs and has been decorated with a smart wallpaper design. The cosy feel of this room is enhanced by the inclusion of some old photos of the local area, an old grandfather clock, muted lighting and crucially, a roaring fireplace with a huge wooden lintel which I was delighted to find a vacant table in front of. There is a lot of low stool seating in this room, plus one pew and one button backed sofa and armchair, which isn't really typical lounge bar furniture, but it worked somehow and I was very comfortable sitting in here. One potentially off-putting factor was the large screen showing Formula One racing, but most punters seemed to be ignoring it quite successfully. One strange feature came to light when I visited the toilets and found plumbed in milk churns in place of the urinals. A long row of hand pumps was dispensing Ossett Big Red and Jester, Wychwood Hobgoblin, Deuchars IPA, Abbeydale Moonshine, Dr Morton's Horrible Skellington, Black Sheep Bitter and Morland Old Speckled Hen. The cheery barman saw me dithering over this extensive range and recommended the Jester which I gave a try and thought it was one of the best pints of Ossett I've encountered. A sign explained that all ales are priced £2.50 on Wednesdays. There is a good pub grub menu full of all the classics and offering jacket potatoes, sandwiches and ploughmans for under a fiver. I didn't know much about this pub prior to my visit, but it ended up being one of my favourites from a very strong crawl around town. The place seems to have bedded in pretty quickly and I hope it does well as it compliments the town's other excellent ale houses very well.

Leeds CAMRA report that the White Swan has re-opened, after being closed for five months. During that time the pub has undergone an internal refurb. Eight real ales will now be available, five of them being regular, plus three rotating guests from local breweries.

A long and quite impressive arched exterior promising more than the inside actually delivers. There are several areas that were once rooms, basically a series of sitting rooms with a pool table and TV at one end. The beer range kind of reflects the pub, John Smiths Cask and Black Sheep Bitter, not in bad condition but not inspiring. It has the air of a former decent coaching inn that has come down in the world.