Coach & Horses, Little Chester, Derby

This is a large street corner pub to the North of the city centre. It's one of those multiple room pubs that has been opened out quite a lot and now feels far too big for its purpose. The front door takes you into a lobby with a games room to the right and the main bar on the left. The main bar is a large room, broken up by various pillars and sections of wall, creating a disjointed area with one or two secluded spots. The room is carpeted and has lots of padded banquette and standard chair seating throughout, with pastel shaded walls which have been decorated with old pictures, some modern mirrors and a few TV screens showing both rugby and football. A space at the far end of the bar has a lounge vibe to it, but the rest of the space is a lot blander and it struggled to generate much atmosphere, despite being reasonably busy. The games room has two sections, one of which is filled by a pool table and gives direct access to the bar, whilst the other half remains completely empty, with not so much as a table or seat in sight. I wish I'd known about the bus to and from Pride Park that ROB mentions, as I rather ambitiously decided to walk here from the stadium, which ate up a good 25 minutes of valuable drinking time. There were four ales on at the bar - Bass, Courage Directors, Belhaven Grand Plan and Exmoor Gold. I gave the latter a try and was rather pleased when the landlord prompted me for my CAMRA card, so that I could take advantage of a discounted price. The beer was in reasonably good shape and the landlord seemed like a genuinely nice bloke, giving cheery welcomes and farewells to all. This is a pretty good pub which set itself apart from the city's more famous ale houses by the friendly and welcoming manner in which customers are treated. There's nothing here that you haven't seen before, but it's a good option in this part of town and nicely compliments the nearby Little Chester Ale House.

Very large two roomed pub with several separate areas. There was a massive screen showing Sky Sports results service and several other screens around the pub. One area was set up for a birthday party later that evening. 3 handpumps on the bar serving a pretty safe selection of cask ale, my pint was in decent condition though. They also give a discount to CAMRA members on production of your membership card. They also do a special trip on Derby County home games where a coach will pick you up at the pub and then bring you back after the game. What a good idea to get some punters in as it's quite a way from the ground. It's a decent enough pub, but not really worth a special visit.

The Coach and Horses is a fairly large pub that is situated on the corner of a busy road junction. I first visited this pub on 14 September 1983 when the pub was a Bass tied house. On my recent visit the pub still had two seperate rooms with a small bar at the front which was fairly basic with a pool table in it,the lounge which is to the rear is a lot bigger,this room is carpeted and had bench seating and small stools,there was a large screen which was showing the Everton v Wigan game. There were three real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Bass as this was an ex Bass house and this was a decent enough drink,the other beers were Exmoor Gold and Caledonian Golden XPA. The pub was nice and warm on a very cold day,but it was almost empty with only two other customers in which is a shame as this is a decent enough pub to have a few drinks in. Pub visited 9/3/2013