King Alfred, Barrow-In-Furness

Having been on Walney Island earlier in the day and having visited the excellent Queen's Arms in the village of Biggar, I returned on foot to visit the imposing King Alfred, which is only a couple of minutes walk from the bridge over from the mainland. It was still quite a chilly walk on a February night though. Earlier in the day, I'd heard the landlord and barman in the Queen's Arms discussing the merit of stocking the local beers from the Coastline Brewery, which is also on the island. Their conclusion was that locals would polish off the 3.8 blonde beer, but that the 4.8% porter would be too strong to shift. Not in my book! Having tried the aforementioned blonde in the Ambrose Hotel in town, I noticed that the porter had been on sale in the King Alfred. Hence my visit. Alas, the Coastline Cormorant Porter had been replaced with a Bowness Bay Swan Black. Bowness Bay Swan Blonde was also on, along with the Coastline Breakwater Blonde. My disappointment was tempered by the Swan Black which was an adequate replacement. The King Alfred was a very busy pub, so much so that I had to occupy a standing position at the bar. I had the feeling some kind of event was on and there was a break in proceedings. But I didn't stay around long enough to find out exactly what. The room I had entered into was fairly large and there was what looked like an equally large room off to the left too. Whilst I didn't initially have this pub on my list of ones to visit whilst in Barrow, it does warrant a visit in its own right.

Official site of King Alfred - kingalfredhotel.com

Official site of King Alfred - kingalfredhotel.com