Not already a member?
Join our community and - Rate & review pubs - Upload pictures - Add events JOIN for free NOW

Chat about:
Beer of the Week (w/e 27th April 2025) with Thuck Phat on the Pub Forum

Image posted by Just a quick pint, then I'm off
Submitted on Thursday, 26^th December 2024
With picture contributions to 10780 other pubs
View all this pub's pictures (21 more images)

Only members may add pictures, click to receive free membership

Detail Pages

Pub map
Pub reviews (6)
Pub pictures (22)
Page updates

The Spread Eagle, Ipswich

3 Fore Street
Ipswich
IP4 1JW

Correct details

Served areas

Ipswich Central

Reviews of The Spread Eagle (Average Rating: 6 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Pub SignMan left this review about The Spread Eagle

This is a fairly modernised, back street pub showcasing beer from the local Grain Brewery. You enter into the main bar which boasts some tidy parquet flooring, walls painted in predominantly darker shades and a servery over to the left. The bar has an unusual counter front – a kind of bamboo effect panel - plus a modern bar back with two central, Grain branded windows flanked by backlit shelving units. A mix of low and high stool seating fills the ample space opposite, alongside some basic tables and chairs and at least one pew over to the side, under a wall with peeling paint, which may or may not be a deliberate design feature. Drinking ledges with high stools can be found on both sides of the room too and there are some shelves stacked with board games next to the entrance, an extensive pump and keg clip collection on the rear wall, a few arty photos here and there plus some old black and white photos from back in the day, fairy lights across the ceiling and a bunch of promotional posters. A second room to the rear offers more seating, mostly benches, but was it was completely empty on this visit.
There were five Grain beers available on handpull when I arrived - Oak, Blackwood, Best Bitter, Threeonesix and Red Nelson - with a sixth pump unused. The barmaid was very nice and as well as pouring an excellent pint of the Threeonesix, also explained what Hot Buttery Rum was, as advertised on a poster behind the bar!
It’s a shame that this pub was so quiet compared to those I’d been to in the town centre, as it was definitely the best beer quality I encountered all day. The pub has a somewhat stripped back appearance which doesn’t make it feels like the cosiest spot, but with some interesting, well-kept Grain beers to choose from, I could easily see me making repeat visits here.

Date of visit - 8th December 2024

On 28^th March 2025 - rating: 7
[User has posted 3350 recommendations about 3350 pubs]

Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Spread Eagle

Grade II listed corner pub, with semi-modern paintwork below the half-timbered upper story on both facades, but a semi-traditional alehouse look inside. Five Grain beers being served from the six handpumps, including my pint of Blackwood stout (£4.90), plus four more and a couple of guests from the hooped fount on the bar-back.

On 28^th December 2024 - rating: 7
[User has posted 8679 recommendations about 8678 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Quinno _ left this review about The Spread Eagle

Recommended this one by the landlord of the Fat Cat. So we added it as a joker and gave it a whirl, as it is owned by the Grain Brewery. The nasty grey/violet paint job on the timbered exterior made me wonder (GII listed, who allowed them to do that??). Anyway in we went to be immediately halted “can you do all the COVID stuff please, table service only blah blah”. Upon filling out our papers we were then led out to a scruffy rear courtyard at which point our smiley middle class server promptly wandered off without taking our order. I kind of guessed we’d be left in the lurch and so it proved, with three other tables’ worth of people all sat there thirsty for 5 minutes. In the end a volunteer was dispatched to demand service and upon Macavity’s return the announcement was made that, despite being a brewery tap, on an early Saturday evening, on ITFC’s first home game of the season, they had run out of cask. Incredible. So we upped and left, as did some others. What a shower, this is what negligence occurs when you leave a bunch of minimum wage kids to run a pub. Shall I leave a score for a pub I didn’t actually drink in? Yes I will.
Visited early August.

On 12^th September 2021 - rating: 1
[User has posted 5552 recommendations about 5533 pubs]

View more reviews of The Spread Eagle (6)

External web links for The Spread Eagle

Pubs Galore is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.