Charters, Peterborough

Charters is housed in a barge on the Nene with a restaurant upstairs and bar below deck. Unsurprisingly it is long and thin and obviously the floor is on the piss. In amongst the premium and craft keg I counted 14 hand pumps on the bar. The beers I noted were Oakham’s JHB, Inferno, Obsidian Order, Citra and Bishops Farewell as well as Stewart’s Kilted Kiwi, Newby Wyte Brewery’s Queen Elizabeth II and an offering from Portobello Brewing. Food is available, the burger was priced at £9. Televisions are found throughout, and it was half full of people watching the first half of the England v Wales World Cup game. Outside is a large seating area with a big screen that was also showing the football. There were only five or so people in this area, which looked very depressing, especially because the food stalls were closing up early. Hopefully it will be busier during the knockout stages. I’m not a huge fan of waterborne drinking venues, but this place is worthy of a visit.

Housed on the lower deck of a barge moored on the river, as you’d expect it’s long and thin with the counter down the starboard side and bench seating to port, there is also a large outdoor area on the riverbank. Four pulls at one end are devoted to Oakham beers while a group of four in the middle and seven at the far end serve a range of other breweries beers although a few are doubled up. Usual suspects plus more crafty kegs as well as bottles and cans.

A wonderful Dutch barge moored on the Nene just south of Peterborough town centre. If boating it's possible to tie up and walk straight in without touching dry land. We did just that, a first for me and worth and extra point. It's already well described so I'll stick with the salient points: it has a noticeable list (less noticeable after a couple), a Thai restaurant upstairs and a welcoming and comfortable bar area downstairs. Oakham owned so their beer is well represented: Inferno, JHB, Bishops Farewell and Citra were on alongside Lacons Hoptrick, Abbeydale Bootlegger, Boudicca Andaste's Ale and Grain Dark Ash as guests. All that we tried was in good shape and Oakham are clearly confident enough in their own brews to stock decent guests some of which were reasonably local. A top spot in Peterborough.

Rammed at 2 o`clock on my Saturday pre-match visit , 3/4 deep at the bar but using the dark arts i only had a few minutes wait to be served , lots of handpulls mostly Oakhams but hard to see with the crowds in front , i had a Citra which was in pretty good nick , i went outside to the beer garden which was also pretty busy with mostly Shrewsbury fans , there were a few Peterborough fans about and to be honest they are a right miserable bunch , the ones we met in other pubs around town were the same . It was OK in here maybe better visited on a non match day .

Nice little drinking den close to the town center. Decent brews were on the bar when we attended. As this was the last pub of the day, my memory is a little jaded beyond this.

This 176 foot long barge was built in 1907 and worked the rivers and canals of Holland, Belgium and Germany. The barge was in use up to 1990 and in Sept 1991 opened up as a bar and restaurant. The downstairs bar had 15 handpumps in operation on our visit, a range of Oakham ales were doubled up and a good range of interesting guest ales. The first thing we noticed was that the barge was on a slight tilt, so the bar counter was listing to one side. We went for the Red Brewery White Duck and Nobbys Brewery Guilsborough Gold. The bar was well staffed so service was fast and efficient. The beer quality was also in premium condition, so wouldn't hesitate a revisit.

Official site of Charters - www.charters-bar.com