The Huntsman, Bath

Beautiful off-white building, opened up with pillars and wall remnants into a large space with the bar counter and kitchen on the right towards the rear. Two London Pride hand pumps face the door, but a bank of five is further round to the left (see photo). My Red Fox was good (NBSS 3). A large upstairs room is used for weddings and such.

Fuller's pub with a ground floor bar and an upstairs dining room. The bar was split into a few different sections. We chose to sit (or rather squeeze into) a set of pews not far from the entrance. At the bar, Fuller's London Pride is the regular beer. They also had a Fuller's collaboration beer with North Brewing called Sparkling Ale and a couple of guests in Verdant Penpol & Siren Memento. They'd had a Siren tap takeover 3 weeks prior to our visit. We had the Sparkling Ale and the Penpol, with 2 halves coming to £6. Music was playing at an acceptable level and as with many pubs in Bath, the forthcoming Rugby World Cup was being promoted.

Another upmarket Fuller’s a few paces away from the Crystal. Larger and a bit more impersonal though decorated well with a nice green tiled lower bar. Friendly and helpful barman. Three cask over five pumps, my first choice of Fyne was kyboshed when the price was announced - £3.25 for a half! So I settled for a still overpriced but more acceptable Pride (NBSS 3) which I'm fairly sure was (even) more expensive than the same beer/measure in the Crystal 15 minutes before which surprised me as that was the classier joint of the two. Worth a drop-in if you've not been but the Crystal is the better bet for a GBG listed Fuller's second time round. 6.5

One of Bath’s fine Georgian buildings, currently a pub operated by Fuller’s, which doesn’t do it any favours. During the COVID era food is only available in the upstairs bar, and the ale selection has dropped to two draft ales – although when I arrived the Oliver’s Island had run out (only just, they told me) leaving Pride as the sole decent offering. The young staff were quite unhelpful, one of them cocky and rude. The beer wasn’t on top form, and it was over-priced for the area. Some of the other customers were also fairly belligerent, not locals, just entitled tourists. All in all a rather disappointing visit, it certainly wasn’t a relaxing pub visit, so I doubt I’ll join the pack and hunt this one out again.