The White Hart Inn, Exeter

The White Hart is a roomy old coaching inn in the heart of Exeter. Badging itself externally as a 14th century "Old Ale and Port House", it's much larger than it looks with a number of different drinking and dining areas either side of a central cobbled passageway, through which the horse drawn coaches presumably used to pass all those years ago. It is believed to have been originally a resting place for monks. A sign in the passageway directs us to the "Tap Bar and Secret Garden" on the left which is a cosy and comfortable split level interior which, despite evident signs of alteration, still retains a characterful, if slightly chainy, ambience. Pots and pans hang from the beams and there's a flagstoned floor. The "Secret Garden" is a smallish walled garden, most notable for a pub in the heart of the city. The other side of the passageway contains the hotel accommodation, but the restaurant there is still comfortable and traditionally furnished. There's 55 rooms available for overnight accommodation, of which 14 are in the original part of the building and the remainder in an extension. Room rates appear on the face of it to be reasonable, although the tariff sheet rather intriguingly says - "NB, bedrooms have not yet been refurbished". The White Hart Hotel is part of the Marstons Inns portfolio and, on my recent visit, was serving Ringwood Best, Hobgoblin, plus Old Wallop ( the provenance of which escapes me ). The Ringwood Best, perhaps cheaper than might be expected at £ 2.70p, was in reasonable form. There's the rather impersonal, slightly chainy feel that is inevitable in a place like this, but you could do much worse than call in when you're in town.