The White Lion, Nottingham

The White Lion is known to locals as the top house and this pub was our sunday drinking pub for over 10 years untill GK took over and closed Kimberley brewery down. This pub has'nt altered in all the years i have been going in here the decor is quite smart and the lower lounge is carpeted when you go up the couple of steps your in the bar which has no carpets and it seems like you are in a country pub and not in the Nottingham conurbation. There are four handpumps that used to serve Kimberley beers but these are now brewed in Bury St Edmunds there is usuall GK IPA and Abbot plus Kimberley bitter and a seasonal from GK. This used to be one of my favourite pubs and it is still a nice pub with a good group of regulars its just a shame that GK are now running the place,there is also a really nice garden at the back for warmer days and you can see the church from here. All in all a really nice pub that has been spoilt by the beers that it has to sell.

Local, in days of yore, to friends on Sat crawl, sadly now in the hands of the enemy (GKipa, Abbot), although the Hardy&Hansons Bitter & Olde Trip were in good nick, albeit too cold (turn that chilling system down – we don’t need proper beer at the temperature of the smoothflow abominations!). Seems a solid community local – downstairs bar was full of more senior drinkers (21:30), upstairs has a nice old tiled floor, bits of tables & stools, the guys tell me it hasn’t changed at all, & all the better for that. Duck beyond the bar to the dart ‘snug’ but you’ll need to practice- the locals look pretty good! A large plasma sits in a corner - off so I expect it is judiciously used. Next along is a large portrait of local-born Henry Ireton, a senior figure in the civil war & eventually Cromwell's son-in-law. We had to wonder whether the unicycle in the corner was some sort of sadistic pub challenge, but it turned out the owner was doing his own crawl, and had managed 14 pubs thus far- on a unicycle!!, extraordinary. (review refers Sep08)