Whitelocks First City Luncheon Bar, Leeds

Another alley pub in the heart of Leeds' retail district, Whitelock's is something of a unique experience, with its constrained narrow interior running parallel with the alleyway outside and it's old fashioned luncheon bar. The pub is named after the Whitelock family who owned and remodelled the pub in the late 1800's and the real treat with this place is that it has altered very little in the intervening years. The servery dominates the main part of the pub, running along the back wall whilst a few banquettes and low stools formed into curved booths around copper topped tables, offer a bit of seating opposite. The bar counter itself is also copper and the front of the servery has some lovely coloured tiling that only became apparent once the heaving lunchtime crowd started to disperse. There are mirrors all over the place, including some nice name plates in the doors and plenty of old brewery mirrors including a large one for Vaux Stouts with a small stained glass 'Luncheon Bar ' insert. Stained glass can also be found in plentiful supply in the front windows, again bearing the pub's name. Beyond the servery, the room opens out a little, into the dining area with mostly banquette seating, some of which had been formed into back-to-back booths. A trip up the perilous staircase to the toilets, revealed a collection of photos and newspaper clippings relating to the pub. Some of the old black and white photos show exactly how much of the original layout and features have been retained in the modern day pub. A glance along the crowded servery revealed a decent ale selection, although after ordering and fighting our way further into the pub, a few more handpulls came into sight behind a small pillar, so it's worth making your way down the length of the servery to make sure you're not missing out on anything exciting. The options on our visit were Great Heck Citra, Abbeydale Moonshine, Acorn Gorlovka Stout and Angus IPA, Rudgate Hagar's Mash, Theakston Best Bitter, Taylor Golden Best, Ossett Silver King and Kirkstall Pale. The Citra was an excellent pint and the general consensus seemed to be that all beers sampled were on fine form. This is a great pub that I probably didn't see the best of thanks to the cramped conditions, although this didn't really detract too much from my enjoyment. It's an alarming, but very reassuring feeling when you leave the bustle and chaos of the modern shopping precinct to be transported back in time to this old fashioned establishment and it is this precious quality that makes the pub an essential destination.

Located down an alley, Whitelocks is a thin bar whose interior seems deceptively large due to a mirrored wall to the left. It is worth popping in just to look at the large copper plated bar that was constantly being wiped down by a barmaid. To the left of the bar is an attractive tiled servery, but there didn’t seem to be any food available during my Friday afternoon PuG jolly boys (and girls) outing. To the right of the bar is a seating area that was very busy so I didn’t get to have a nose. To be honest the thin bar area was also very busy so I was glad to grab a couple of minutes peace in trap one upstairs. I can’t remember what my first pint was, but I’m pretty sure Real Ale Ray recommended a pint of Moonshine for my second pint, which was very tasty. This pub is well worth a look.

Totally agree, still one of the best watering holes to be experienced in Leeds City Centre and great to pay it another visit. Good range of Ales on and the two I tried were in very good condition. I would like to have reported what they were but I didn’t have a chance to record them and blame it on these Yorkshire folk being too bloody friendly. The invariably very busy narrow internal space of the Whitelocks makes it difficult to stand there without striking up a conversation with the locals. And by the time I’d finished explaining why I was there , what we were doing and being forced to go through the remaining target pubs on the crawl list to get the local experts view, the rest of the PuG crew had buggered off and left me, resulting in a swift exit to catch up.

Yes still a very fine pub did a releaf for Scottish and Newcastle 20 years ago here nothing changed