Scott & Brassey, Carlisle

One of what was once four station buffets, this bar has an inconspicuous door from the platform but is surprisingly airy inside under a high vaulted ceiling. Indeed, it feels quite spartan, with a limited amount of semi-modern furniture and sparse decoration. The choice from the array of seven handpumps was restricted too, with just Box Steam Brewery's Piston Broke (£3.60) and a cider being served.

For some reason I thought that this place was going to be a micropub but it certainly isn't. It's a Station bar / pub with a high ceiling and slightly Gothic interior. There is no TV apart from the screen showing the train departure times. A garden area with a fence and fake grass has been created on the station platform. Carlisle isn't a very much used station compared to larger cities so it wasn't that busy. I noticed six hand pumps with 2 unused, 2 with ciders and Orchard Road Big Bear's Brown plus Three Friends Bad Uncle Barry. I went for the Orchard Road beer (£3.50) which was excellent. Sadly I forgot all about the CAMRA discount. This is a welcome addition to a city not noted for interesting pubs and is GBG 2020 listed. As for the distance from London pedantry the current table 65 shows 299 miles from Euston to Carlisle via the WCML. There used to be a steam service from St Pancras called the Thames Clyde Express which travelled via the Easr Midlands to Leeds and then onto Carlisle via the Settle Carlisle line but as noted the distance is over 301 miles and slightly further if it stopped at Nottingham. What Pub suggests that it's Carlisle folklore!

The magnificent room in which this new pub has been created was concealed behind office partitions and false ceilings before the present owners got to work on it. I must say they've done a brilliant job, the only slight worry being that it seems a little big for the custom they are likely to get. The hours are 8am to 9pm (closing an hour earlier Monday to Wednesday, 90 minutes earlier Sunday) which is sufficiently unusual to suggest they've done a bit of research and it's absolutely dead around here in the evenings. Someone I took to be one of the owners was behind the bar and was happy to chat about the place and about exactly how far it is from here to London (it appears to be slightly further by train if the signs at Settle station are accurate). Anyway, all pedantry aside, this was a very nice bar with some excellently kept beers and I ended up having three halves when I usually have just the one when I'm cycling - to be fair, I was only walking my bike to the train. There's a Camra discount of 10% but on Mondays all beers are reduced to £2.50 a pint and the discount is not applicable. Date of visit: 16th October 2017