The Wrens, Leeds

With half an hour to kill before my bus to Otley, I decided to pop into this compact, three room pub for a swift half. You enter into a split level room with a split level bar counter, which isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing arrangement, but does at least mean that customers using the Theatre Bar at the front left of the pub are spared having to descend the steps into the main bar to order their drinks. The Theatre Bar itself is arguably the nicest room in the pub, centring around a nice fireplace with a decorative hood and offering comfortable high backed chairs and a curved banquette running around the front corner of the room. The room has bare floorboards and has been decorated with a lot of photos of the city. Unfortunately for me, the room was full, even at the early hour of my visit, so I retreated to the main bar, which has a rather jarring two-tone colour scheme that has resulted in pretty much everything being either black or white. There are four small black high tables with black stools, a series of black and white photos on the white walls and a black and white checkerboard floor, all of which made me feel like I was on the cover of an LP by ‘The Specials’. The front of the servery was mirrored for some strange reason and there was a TV screen (remarkably in colour) showing the day’s early football fixture with music playing instead of commentary. Following the corridor past the left of the bar, a third room appears at the rear. This is also on a lower level and had padded banquettes and another TV screen showing the same match. The beer had clearly taken a hammering on the Friday night, as the number of turned clips outnumbered the beers that were actually available. I was left with a choice of Theakston Old Peculiar, Taylor Landlord and Ossett Wrens Centenary Blonde (£3.00). I opted for a half of the latter, which the very friendly barmaid struggled greatly to pour, presumably because it was the very dregs of the barrel that she was drawing, as the end product tasted pretty foul. Other ales that had also gone off included Sharp’s Doom Bar, Copper Dragon Golden Pippen, Tetley’s Cask and something from the Leeds Brewery. Whilst the décor was a bit of a mixed bag, the poor beer tipped this visit the wrong way and I came away wishing I’d spent my time at the bus stop instead. Despite the friendly, if somewhat incompetent, service, this was the worst pub I visited over five days in Leeds this year.

Looks a traditional sort of pub from the outside, it's only once through the doors you will see that the pub is soulless. Some bright spark has decided to take away the original charm of the place and make it into a minimalistic bar serving food and a choice of two boring ales. We found the place to be a bit clicky and two drinkers at the bar looked at me as though I had two heads.

I haven’t being to The Wrens for a few years and I was told it had being done out so I thought I would give it a go on my way to The Belgrave Music Hall to see a band. I arranged to meet a friend in there who also hadn’t being for quite a while. I was there first to arrive and as I walked in I thought, oh my god what have they done to this place? I used to really like this proper traditional pub which was small and cosy with nice rooms, one with lots of theatre posters on the wall, it was really good. Now it’s terrible all the wood has gone its dull painted pastel walls and a really bad granite bar that was the main thing that ruined it for me. As I went to the terrible granite bar I noticed there was only one beer on so I ordered a pint. This beer was £3.80 a pint, a little over priced if you ask me, it must be to pay for the granite bar! It wasn’t the best kept pint and I decided I would leave before my friend arrived. I texted him to say I will meet him elsewhere, just as I sent the text he arrived and I said to him lets go somewhere else, it’s not as good as I used to be in here. My friend agreed with me after seeing the state of the place. Just after I said this to my friend a rather rude barman said “well you won’t be missed” That was a good enough reason to leave on its own. I defiantly won’t be going back there in a hurry.

This is a pub I normally avoid as it has a reputation for being pricy. I was picking someone up from the Grand Theatre in Leeds and the Wrens was our agreed meeting point otherwise it wouldn't have been my choice of pubs. The pub lived up to its reputation by charging £3.00 for a standard pint of bitter, when you look round the pub its nothing special, its rather sparse with plain looking seating and decoration so its not the surroundings you are paying high prices for. Its only a small place, if a dozen people walked in it would look busy. There was a good range of hand pulled ales, I think there was a choice of eight but with it being such a small pub with not many customers it follows that it must have a low turnover of ale. Maybe there is too much choice because if ale is stood in the pump for lengthy periods of time it goes sad and quality tends to suffer. I tried a pint of Leeds Pale which was slightly warm, flat looking and strangely didn't taste like Leeds Pale. Next I tried Timothy Taylors Landlord which is one of my favourite drinks, this was the right temperature but again it didn't taste like Landlord it was bland, in fact there was no taste to it? It was my intention to have a quiet word with the barman about the quality of the beer but four customers walked in and stood at the bar which stopped me. At £3.00 a pint you expect a good pint but that will be impossible unless the choice comes down to maybe 3 ales instead of 8. Many moons ago this pub used to sell Tetleys at its best.

Official site of the Wrens - www.thewrenshotel.co.uk