Church House, Pontefract

Marked as open

They had GKIPA, London Pride and Timothy Taylor Landlord on, as well as a Bulmers Perry and the usual array of lagers on tap. The Pride was OK. They've smartened it up a bit since the last time I was in here – gone has the pitted and scruffy black floor covering to be replaced by bare boards. I think that the last time I was in was before the smoking ban so not surprisingly it looks a lot cleaner overall. The clientele seemed to be mainly office workers enjoying food from the Thai menu. There's a large TV screen on one of the walls, showing the news when I was in, but with the sound muted and with subtitles. Watching the unscrupulous and venal antics of some MPs I had a nasty taste in the mouth, and it was nothing to do with the beer. There was some music playing but it was not loud enough to be a nuisance. The young girls behind the bar were friendly enough, enjoying some friendly banter with a few drinkers at the bar. This bar is somewhat off the beaten track, and is another of those decent but unremarkable pubs that I quite like. In some ways it is better off for being off the main roads from a punter's point of view, if you're looking for a less crowded backstreet pub.

The Church house is now open again and is a really nice place [admin note: marked as open again 22/02/2010]

Marked as closed

The Flying Horse is a very good unpretentious traditional corner pub, close enough to be a decent alternative to the sterile bars in the Broadgate centre. The ground floor L shaped bar provides a traditional wood panneled interior decor and has a flat screen tele and a couple of Fruit machines. The bar supports six handpumps but were only dispensing GK IPA, Courage Best and Ringwood Best at the time of my visit, but the Ringwoods was a very nice pint. So I found this to be a good comfortable tradition type pub close to the city and only really missing a more interesting ale choice from the six pumps available.

CHURCH HOUSE Closed at the moment [admin note: marked as closed 18/02/2010]

2 bars and a beer garden with good value food.