The Merchants Inn, Rugby

This is another of Rugby's top ale houses, set in a large Brewer's Tudor building in the historic centre of town. You enter into the lower, front part of the pub which has limited seating and several glass cabinets full of books as well as a collection of pump clips on the ceiling and a few bits of breweriana. A raised area to the right has a dartboard and a signed England rugby shirt on display. Moving further into the pub, you reach the main bar area, with the servery on the right hand side and a large open space opposite broken up with chunky pillars surrounded by drinking ledges. The area is lit from above where a couple of skylights can be found, but the rest of the ceiling is notable for the vast collection of pumps clips, stuck to a series of rails. The room has been decorated with all sorts of breweriana including some great brewery mirrors and enamel signs that are well worth exploring. There are also hundreds of bottles lined up on a high shelf that runs around the room. Seating is a mix of benches and standard chairs which extends into a rear carpeted section full of more breweriana and a TV screen. There is a second rear seating area to the right which has a high gabbled roof, hop lined walls and a huge screen on the back wall which was showing cricket during our visit. Pews have been arranged into booth formations and there are display cabinets full of beer bottles and shelves stacked with jugs and books. There is a lot more beer memorabilia here too including an illuminated Tetley's sign. A side door leads out to a small beer garden, situated on the other side of the road that runs past the pub. On the bar, another strong ale line up awaited us, with the options of Titanic Lifeboat, Burton Bridge Top Dog Stout and Stairway to Heaven, Oakham Bishops Farewell, Tring Tea Kettle Stout and Cassowary, RCH Firefox, Portobello Market Porter, Purity Mad Goose and Batemans XB. The Lifeboat was in great shape and possibly the best beer I had during our long day out around town. This is a great pub that demands repeat visits. There is plenty to keep you entertained here, not least the fantastic ale selection and for my money, this was the best pub visited all day. A must when in Rugby.

Very interesting pub with flagstone floors, lots of wooden seating and several distinct areas. Lots of breweriana around the walls with old signs and mirrors. 9 real ales available alongside several real ciders and a perry all served by a friendly barmaid. They were even willing to take a JDW voucher against a pint. I tried 3 of the beers and all were excellent. I even had an extra half as the rest of the crew went to the nearby Lawrence Sheriff. Quite rightly in the CAMRA GBG2014 and my favourite pub of quite a few visited in Rugby.

A very good real ale pub if you like your beers to be a bit different, nine or ten ales were available and the Tring Tea Kettle Stout was particularly good as was the Portobello VPA. Recommended.

The exterior is painted a strange vomit yellow colour with some (presumably fake) tudor-esque exterior beams. However the interior is much nicer; multi-area’d and flagstone floored with a plethora of breweriana/old pump clips and perhaps reminiscent of the Fat Cat in Norwich. Cricket showing on a big screen in a rear area that was nicely unobtrusive. Unusually, the outside seating area is over the street. Plenty of ales. Mixed bag for me – the Tring Tea Kettle Stout was in good nick but the RCH Firebox rather less so, warm and a bit iffy (it was a daft ABV and I suspect mine was the first out for quite some time). I did like this one as a pub very much; I’d happily pop back and hope the Firebox was a one-off.