The Shakespeare, Durham

The Shakespeare is a decent looking pub that is on a shopping street which heads up to Durham Castle. Once inside this is quite a small pub with a single oblong shaped room,the bar is on the left side,the room is bare boarded and the seating is bench type and chairs. There were four real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Jennings Cumberland which went down well,the other beers were Brains Reverand James,Deuchars IPA and London Pride. The pub was very busy and there were no TVs or background music. I thought this was a decent pub to have a drink in. Pub visited 19/3/2016

A basic central local. 4 real ales from national brands. A bit average.

Update – September 2013 This is a traditional, basic pub with bare floorboards, a boarded ceiling and some padded settles in a number of adjoining similar areas. Outside, the pub proudly proclaims that it is “one of the most haunted pubs in England”. 4 beers were on – London Pride, Deuchars IPA, Deuchars Autumn Red and Jennings Cumberland Ale. A blackboard beside the bar provides exceptionally helpful descriptions of the beers – thus, for instance, we are told that London Pride is an “English Bitter”, whereas Deuchars IPA is described as an “India Pale Ale”. Similarly Deuchars Autumn Red is a “Best Bitter”. This is a basic drinkers pub where beer and conversation are very much the order of the day. The beer range is distinctly unexciting, but it’s a better pub than my previous review below would indicate. Original review – September 2008 Early 19th Century CAMRA National Inventory pub in a narrow shopping street leading up to the cathedral. The pub is larger than it looks from the outside as it extends back quite a way into several rooms behind the bar, including a small wood panelled screened snug. Taken as a whole, I found the pub a bit featureless and the pine floor boards and cream coloured walls made the pub feel a bit cold and uninviting to me. It lacks the cosiness of, say, the Victoria Hotel or the front bar of the Dun Cow nearby. It didn't help that, on a wet and windy evening, the barman insisted on having the front door open. There was a reasonable range of real ales on - Deuchars IPA, Everards Tiger, Fat Catz Devonshire (?) - and the staff and locals were welcoming and hospitable, but, in all honesty, I didn't really warm to this place