Victoria Family & Commercial Hotel, Leeds

This is another of my favourite Leeds pubs. I used to work in a nearby office block a few years ago and more recently at the Crown Court across the road. It's as described by OB below and was packed on Saturday night. There was still no problem with getting served though. This ended up being our last pub of the night as one of the booths became vacant and the other half went for it and got it. They always have a good range of well kept beers here, so I wasn't exactly upset. We had a couple of drinks here and the final beer of the night for me was a pint of Thornbridge Jaipur which at 5.9% finished me off nicely after over 9 hours out on the town.

Well preserved Nicholson's boozer, with as expected a decent range of standard and seasonal ales from Timothy Taylors, Tetley's, Acorn and Shepherd Neame. Absolutely rammed throughout a saturday afternoon session which affected queuing times, but I still like this place. It feels traditional and homeley, the sort of place you'd be delighted to take refuge in during a cold Yorkshire day.

Sitting behind the city hall, the high Victorian splendour of the Victoria delivers everything you expect from a late 19th century city pub. There are two bars, Victoria and Albert's, plus a function room at the front left called Bridget's bar. The Victoria bar has mahogany booths, each seating six to eight people, down one side complete with large snob screens and etched mirrors and glass. There is a raised area at the front looking out onto a rather dull street and the back door of the city hall, at the other end is a bench seating area, with a dreadful modern fire exit door. There are mirrors and etched glass everywhere and the room is topped by a coffered ceiling. Running down most of one side is the huge mahogany bar counter with fluted Corinthian columns and a vaguely ecclesiastical bar back. 9 handpumps grace the bar centre, serving a range of mostly Yorkshire beers from Tetleys, including the dark mild, Taylor's, Leeds Brewery; there was also Ringwood on today, the beers are always in good condition whenever I call in and are usually served by smart mature barmaids. Customers were mainly office types on their lunch break but the pub attracts a wide range of clientele. Running parallel to the Victoria is Albert's bar, this is laid out as a dining room and has less exuberant decoration, with an open tiled fireplace and only a little etched glass. You will not be surprised to learn of a regular GBG entry for this splendid pub.

This is a lovely hotel bar, it reminds me of the central Edinburgh ale houses, comfortable seating, long bar, high ceiling. Superb choice of very well kept beers. Well worth a visit if you want a nice relaxing drink.