The Kings Arms, Brislington, Bristol

One of only two pubs left in the village now with both The Hollybush and The White Hart having closed in recent years, I have always quite liked this pub and it strikes me as a cosy place with quite a country pub feel to it, no doubt due to the fact that much of the interior is exposed stone walls. It has had a chequered history of late being closed for some time, and although now re-open there is a To Let sign outside, so it’s looks as though the future may still be uncertain. It consists of two rooms, the rear one has the exposed stonework all the way round and also has the bar counter. This is quite a small room with a mostly carpeted floor and some slate tiles nearer the bar along with a large fireplace, although this was not in use on a recent visit. The front room doesn’t have quite the same cosiness with just the partition wall to the other bar being bare stone. Elsewhere there was a mixture of pale grey wood panelling on the lower part of the walls and rough cream plasterwork above with some black gloss wood detailing. A darts board was on the wall and there was a projector screen rolled up, although whether this gets any use I am not sure. A very small snug was off to one side which in reality looked to be more of a cupboard and there was what appeared to be a wood burning stove in a chimney recess but was I suspect a gas model. There is apparently also a beer garden although we did not investigate this. Beers on tap were Courage Best, Doom Bar and Wickwar’s Bob. Ciders were well represented with Stowford Press, Blackthorn, Thatcher’s Traditional and Thatcher’s Gold, although the latter was past it’s best unfortunately.