George Hotel, Keswick

A very nice old style pub a well kept good selection of ales, good food friendly staff,a delight to sit and take in the atmospere

The George Hotel is a traditional 300 year old coaching inn occupying a central position close to Keswick’s Moot Hall and its central square. It’s a Grade II listed Georgian style building. Outside, a plaque tells us that it’s the oldest pub in Keswick. It was originally called The George and Dragon, the name being changed on the accession of King George I. We’re also told that German miners of lead and silver paid their dues here to the servants of Queen Elizabeth I. An entrance with a tiled floor leads to the bar counter at the back of the main drinking area. This is a bare boarded, wooden beamed, small lobby style area with bar stools and ledges running along the side of the walls. It’s broken up by a number of pillars which are decorated with some old hotel price lists and menus and some black and white photos of Keswick being flooded in 1985. On the left as you come in is a comfortable, small, carpeted lounge seating area – evidently a different room once, but with the door now removed – with fixed padded seating around the walls, wood panelling and subdued lighting. A large dark beam straddles the ceiling, which has burgundy painted walls. Pleasingly, this is denoted as a dog free zone. On the partitioned wall panelling to this area are some black and white photos of when the then Prince of Wales came to Keswick in June 1927. We also see, on the corridor leading to the rear car park, a large framed photo of one of the founders of the National Trust, Hardwicke Rawnsley. Further seats are available in a snug style seating area on the right, again traditionally furnished, where there’s a fine fireplace. There’s no TV’s or fruit machines etc and the overall feel is still that of a characterful old inn, albeit one that looks like it has lost some of its internal partitioning and doors. A separate dedicated restaurant with waitress service occupies a large room up a few steps on the right. A substantial menu includes the Famous George Gigantic Pies – a house speciality apparently coming in at £ 17.95 and £ 12.95p for a full and half sized pie respectively. These pies come in a number of varieties – eg – Cow Pie, Farmhouse Pie. Like many pubs in Keswick, it’s a Jennings pub, offering the full range of their beers – Bitter, Cumberland, Sneck Lifter and Cocker Hoop. Also on was George and Dragon Ale, stated as “ being brewed specially for the pub by Marstons”, but which is probably Pedigree or Burton rebadged. At differing times over by various visits, 2 Ringwood Beers appeared – Boon Doggle and 49’er – rather parochially referred to as “guest beers”. Accommodation is offered, with an old style serving hatch reception area just across the corridor from the bar counter. Tourists don’t appear to dominate in here as much as some of the other Keswick pubs and, on my visits, a few seemingly regulars were in attendance propping up the bar. Worth calling in when in Keswick