The Vaults, Newark

Hard-to-find cellar bar just off the main road, it’s the side entrance to a bigger building you need to look for. You firstly need to climb up(!) some steps outside, before another staircase takes you to proper vaults with a curved brick ceiling and flagstone floor. Seemingly popular with the local East European community who were in the majority, customer-wise. Eight pumps with four ales and three ciders. Ales were a random mix; Upham Punter, Almasty Pale, Neepsend Maru and a fair drop of Framework Laid Back Stout. On the ball female staff made for a swift and pleasant start to proceedings. Despite me being in a hurry (I squeezed this one in when a sober me would have started heading back to the station) I liked it here and would be happy to visit again, with hopefully slightly better beer quality as well. 7.5

The Vaults is housed in the vaults (funnily enough) of a fine Georgian building on the edge of the town centre. Many years ago it used to be Crocker Bingos where the guvnor, John Bingham, kept very good beer, served fine food and hosted a number of very enjoyable and memorable evenings. Since then it has had a few different incarnations including as a Chinese restaurant according to the friendly barmaid. The offer and layout is still much as it was with the bar to the right of the building and now the first room which you enter down the steep stairs. The bar itself is in front of you, a real and working fireplace to the right, the whole topped by a barrel ceiling and in exposed brick. It's atmospheric and helped by the lit candles throughout. Beyond the bar is the dining area which is similar in character but with laid tables. The only changes are that the entrance is to the right rather than through the main door and an inviting outdoor terrace has been created at the back equipped with chunky wood furniture. Overall it's a very inviting place for a pint and the range over the four handpumps wasn't at all bad: Belvoir Oatmeal Stout, Tollgate Mary Wild (a mild), Oakham JHB and Kelham Island Miami which went down very well. Well worth visiting and a must if on a Newark crawl.