The Roundhouse, Nottingham

An interestingly circular building that once formed a part of the old Nottingham General Hospital and has the look of a wedding cake. The building is predominantly in undressed brick, but has string courses of both stone and moulded decoration. There is a patio area. The interior is of course a circular room. It is accessed via a staircase and is open-plan with some partitioning around a central table. The decor is white, wood panel and exposed brick walls, with a wood floor and a white and 'painted art ceiling' in sistine chapel mode - complete with cracks. Pencil drawings and other framed art also adorn the walls there are comfy full-backed chairs in which i expected to see Sherlock Holmes sipping a Paler's Poison. There was no TV that i saw and the music was general and quiet. The place did food, but i didn't eat so i can't comment on that. The service was very good and the clientele consisted of a few couples. Beer; usual tap stuff with Roundhouse Gold, Theakston's Black Bull Bitter, Burton Bridge Bitter, Dr Morton's Rabbit Punch, Full Mash Hummingbird and a decent Brewster's Cheval Mort MILD I notice that the place divides the opinions of the worthy regulars below. I don't like the interior, but the beer and service are fine and as it is tidy, i can loive with it. It is the kind of place more to go with Mrs Soup rather than mates.

This pub used to be part of the old general hospital and is perfectly circular, hence the name. You have to go up a couple of flights of steps to enter, but there is disabled access. I quite liked the inside, although is is more of a lounge than a pub. This no doubt explains the large number of couples and girls eating a late lunch. We called in on a late Monday afternoon and it was still fairly busy. Lots of alcoves also add to the girlie friendly atmosphere, in fact the other half loved it. There were 6 handpumsp on the bar but only four on serving an ever changing range of guests plus a house beer brewed by Full Mash. My pint was in great condition and Ms CAMRA thought the red wine was very good. It's quite rightly listed in the GBG 2012. We'll certainly visit here again next time we're in Nottingham.

The Round House is a rather fine looking building from the outside and has a good location, just up the hill from the Castle, close to the spot where King Charles raised his standard in a call to arms in his battle against Cromwell. Access is via a spiral staircase which takes you into a large, circular room, semi-partitioned by a number of archways. Unfortunately the interior doesn't quite live up to the promise of the exterior as the modern decor in a faux-old fashioned style gives the impression of a hotel lobby - a view reinforced by the lounge music playing in the background. Seating is mostly provided in the form of very large tables surrounded by lots of chairs, although there were a few comfortable looking leather chairs and a raised area had tables set up for diners. The walls were covered in classical paintings and the windows were shuttered and had heavy felt curtains tied back. The redeeming feature was the beer selection, which was very healthy indeed. I was faced with the following choice - Springhead Maid Marian and Roaring Meg, Derby Diamond Fever, Theakston Black Bull, Belvior Gordon Bennett and a house brew called Round House Ale. At £2.00 a pint, I plumped for the house beer which I thought tasted okay, if not the most memorable. The staff were lovely and one barmaid in particular went out of her way to help the chap next to me to choose a beer he might like. I didn't really enjoy myself in here and despite the tempting beer choice, didn't fancy hanging around to try anything else, although I wonder if I just caught the place at the wrong time as it was fairly quiet at 6:30 on Saturday evening. I think I would give the place another try but I'd hope for a bit more atmosphere next time.