The Crown & Cushion, Chesterfield

You walk through a small cafe down a couple of steps to a small lounge style bar. There were three ales on from Hopback Brewery. This was a 11.30 am visit and the music was blurring.

A traditional-looking pub façade, with the fake half-timbering seen in many Chesterfield town centre buildings, but once inside it's surprisingly like a cafe, with a food counter and cafe-style chairs and tables. The bar is further back on the right, and then there's a conservatory extension to the left rear which repeats the tables and chairs seen at the front. Around the bar it's more like a pub, and there are four hand pumps with three ales and a cider. The ales were Old Hooky and Hooky Bitter from Hook Norton, plus Hopback 25th Birthday Ale. My Old Hooky was OK, though not in tiptop condition and needed several attempts to get anywhere close to a full measure. I had to ask the barman to turn the music down, as we were the only customers and it was difficult to hear oneself speak, and he did this with alacrity. Being close to the market, this pub probably gets a lot of daytime trade and presumably the theory is that a bit of loud music will drag in some passing evening trade. In my case it's more likely to persuade me to walk a few minutes further to the music-free Wetherspoons, but chacun à son goût.