Crown & Sceptre, Torquay

This is a brilliant traditional Georgian coaching house; the two small rooms are a little rustic which for me just adds to the appeal of this place. The building has a small open porch with two doors, the left hand door leads to the lounge and the right hand door leads to the public bar. There is a small central island bar counter that serves both rooms and a rear central corridor that leads to the small beer garden behind the pub; I think the garden only had two tables. The lounge has a rough stone wall on the left with two large fire places and grates which I believe are actually used in the colder months, there are timber beams decorated with Royal Navy ships pennants and a collection of chamber pots hanging from the ceiling, in a glass cabinet on the back wall was a lovely small scale model of the lounge which had been made by one of the regulars. The public bar has a couple of booths along the right wall with a dart board in the back right corner, more chamber pots and various tankards and beer jugs hanging above the bar counter, there were old paintings and photos throughout the pub. The pub has a resident Jack Russell called Scrappy who was very friendly, as were the staff and other customers. Regular ales are St Austell Tribute, Young’s Special, Otter Ale and Badger Tanglefoot with two changing guest beers which were Skinners Betty Stogs and Bays Breaker (Cask Marque and GBG 2010). I tried the Tanglefoot and Betty Stogs which were both very well kept, I really can’t believe they have not included this place in the GBG 2011! Its criminal. An excellent traditional real ale pub with masses of character and many interesting decorations. The beer was very good; my drinking partner had two different beers which he said were well kept. We also had a ploughman’s lunch each which was large and good quality. This place is just my kind of pub, I loved it. I’m really surprised that it has been left out of the GBG 2011 after “30 years of unbroken entry”! I would definitely recommend it for a drink.