The Starling, Harrogate

This is a smart and spacious café-style craft beer bar in the heart of the town centre. The pub has a split level, bare boarded interior with exposed brick and plain painted walls across two, knocked through shop units, each with their own large front windows retained. The servery is on the rear wall and has a rustic timber fronted counter lined with fairy lights, and an uninteresting bar back with a TV screen acting as the beer board. The place has a slight industrial look, with a load of exposed utilities across the ceiling, but generally gives quite a cosy feel, with comfy chairs and padded benches making for comfortable seating options in the main bar area and a lower space to the front right. There’s not been much effort made to decorate the walls beyond a uniform paint scheme, but the right-hand side boasts an impressive starling murmuration mural across the bare brick end wall, with a similar design visible on the front windows. A few shelving units displayed collections of beer bottles, and various blackboards listed upcoming events such as a pub quiz. These boards also suggest the venue has barn and beer hall events spaces, although I didn’t see any evidence of either – perhaps either the staircase or corridor to the right of the bar lead to these areas. Music was playing quietly in the background throughout our time here and there was a nice, civilised atmosphere of the sort you get in these café bars, which would no doubt appeal to a lot of punters who wouldn’t normally visit pubs. On the bar, Taylors Landlord, Taylors & Northern Monk Northern Rising, Daleside Blonde, Kirkstall Three Swords, Amity Brew Unity, Verdant Fresh Hop and Turning Point Soul Driver made for an interesting cask range, from which I tried the Three Swords, which was in fine condition. Approximately ten craft keg lines including one lager and one cider, helped to round out a pretty comprehensive range of options which I felt was up there with some of the best Harrogate has to offer. I thought this was a pretty decent venue which won me over with its well-kept, extensive ale range, if not so much the slightly plain, uninteresting interior and coffee shop vibes. I like that they’re doing something a bit different from the town’s slew of traditional pubs, craft beer bars and micropubs, and whilst it wouldn’t be my first choice for a revisit, it’s nevertheless a great place for some good beer and should be included on any crawl around the town centre. Date of visit - 9th November 2024

Starling has an L-shaped bar counter that faces seating to the front that is split in two by a central wall. A couple of high tables up the left lead to a large table at the rear on the way to the toilets. On a table outside the toilets are various sizes of nappies, I recall the good old days when I used to take my nippers to the pub for so long that I ran out of nappies! Out the back is a courtyard that was busy late on a sunny Friday afternoon. The bar counter supports six hand pumps that were drawing Wilde Child’s Delaying the Inevitable, Turning Point’s Time of the Season, Boson’s Crimple Valley, Kirkstall’s Pale Ale, Daleside’s Blonde and TT Boltmaker. Craft keg was also available, as was a pizza menu with most priced around £11. There was a decent atmosphere and the service was friendly so I’d revisit if passing.

Official site of The Starling - www.murmurationbars.co.uk

Official site of The Starling - www.murmurationbars.co.uk

Now reopened into larger premises by knocking through to the building next door, the ground floor is twice the size of before. The counter has been turned through 90 degrees and lengthened as well as being an L shape. Six handpulls remain with mostly Yorkshire beers, the keg choice from similar sources is provided on 10 taps mounted on an horseshoe. Obviously the coffee and pizzas remain as does the mural of the mumeration of starlings. The floor level had to be raised in the old part and it still has stripped brick walls while the new part is properly plastered. Upstairs was a work in progress.