Admiral Benbow, Shrewsbury

A brick built building slightly away from the town centre on Swan Hill this pub, which was the former Benbow Hotel, does not open till 5.00 pm during the week. Internally it is an L shaped room with a small separate snug room as described below. A decent beer selection as also described below and the Salopian Hop Twister was very good indeed. This was a very good concluding pub for me on the recent Pubs Galore crawl of Shrewsbury.

Externally, this is a somewhat sombre brick built double-fronted end of terrace town centre pub, once the Benbow Hotel. Inside it gives a slightly upmarket though traditional feel with candles on the tables, something of a novelty for Shrewsbury. I plumped for a half of Wood's Shropshire Lad, a name taken from A. E. Housman's eponymous poem, at £1.70 and fine. This is certainly one for the pub traditionalist and ale drinker alike, therefore worthy of an inclusion on any crawl or even a prolonged stay.

A traditional style pub, which was carpeted throughout, low tables and chairs and comfortable bench seating around the perimeter of the main lounge. The bar area was finished in dark mahogany and the main service was from the back room, however I found a decent position in the front part of the main lounge, where I ordered my beers through a small hatch whilst perched on a bar stool. There was a good selection of fairly local ales, so I settled on the Ludlow Gold, which was decent and warranted a second pint, even at the end of the days crawl.

A comfortable old pub just off the town centre which is mainly open in the evenings and has a laid-back sort of feel, added to by the candlelight. A fair selection of changing ales, mainly local, are on handpump, plus a cider.

One main room with a fair sized outside area which was being well used. Various real ale pumps, this strongest of which was 4.5% ABV. There also were ciders on offer which were stronger.