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

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Submitted on Tuesday, 25^th August 2009
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Wellington Arms, Bedford

40 - 42 Wellington Street
Bedford
MK40 2JX

Phone: 01234308033

Correct details

Served areas

Bedford Central

Reviews of Wellington Arms (Average Rating: 8 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Pub SignMan left this review about Wellington Arms

Tucked away down the back streets just outside the town centre, this is a cracking alehouse, run by the ever reliable Banks & Taylor Brewery. The pub has a fairly simple L-shaped interior, and the servery follows the same shape, running down the back wall before turning 90 degrees to run to the rear down the left side of the pub. The shallow but wide front area has some high stools along a window ledge, followed by a series of tables and chairs all the way to the far right of the room, under the frosted front windows. At the far end of the room, past the end of the bar, there is a beer friend stocked with a load of bottle and can options that looked like they might be available for takeout, as well as to drink in the pub. The bar has an attractive dark wood bar back and a tidy timber fronted counter, with the handpulls each topped with a small knitted Six Nations flag ‘hat’. A witch’s broom hangs above the bar counter and a load of pewter tankards are similarly suspended from the canopy. The left-hand side of the pub runs a little further to the rear and is split in two thanks to a couple of sections of partitioning wall, which hide the bar from the seating area behind. This seating area is a very nice space with various sized tables served by a mix of chairs, including two made from old casks. The walls are half panelled with lincrusta upper sections and fireplaces on the front and rear walls, both boarded up. The whole area has been liberally decorated with brewery mirrors, beer adverts, high shelves containing an extensive beer bottle collection and with pint pots and tankards hung from them, countless pump clips including a few vintage ones, CAMRA certificates, a bookcase full of old Good Beer Guides, some fine earthenware, and old Watney’s Red Barrel keg font, horse brasses and an upright piano. The latter is stood on the back wall, next to a door for the beer garden, which I opted not to explore in the cold and rain of a miserable February afternoon.
A fine cask ale range is available, with options on this visit comprising Adnams Ghost Ship, Banks & Taylor Shefford Bitter and Shefford DG, Tribune Roman Way, Listers Limehouse Porter and one other that I couldn’t read, whilst two real ciders rounded out a handsome row of fully occupied handpulls. A very friendly barmaid pulled me a good drop of the Limehouse Porter and I enjoyed supping this whilst eavesdropping on the conversation of the two other customers, who were both real characters and highly amusing.
This is another excellent B&T pub that stood head and shoulders above the other pubs I checked out around Bedford. It’s got some great beer, friendly service, amusing punters and a great, characterful interior and in all honesty, I could’ve quite happily stopped my crawl here and spent the rest of my day working through their ale range. If you only do one pub in Bedford, make sure it’s this one.

On 22^nd February 2022 - rating: 9
[User has posted 3350 recommendations about 3350 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Danny O'Revey left this review about Wellington Arms

Lovely traditional beer pub, lots of pump clips, wood, mirrors ale brewery signage. Great beer

On 27^th January 2019 - rating: 8
[User has posted 1542 recommendations about 1519 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Thuck Phat left this review about Wellington Arms

A very inviting, old brick building from the outside which has survived, along with it's (Victorian I thought) street in the lee of a brutalist, concrete car park from the '60s or '70s I'd guess.
The good impression continues inside as you find an old wood l-shaped bar, wood floors, a vast collection of pump clips, windows etched with B & T logos and a wide variety of tankards as well as an unusual blue glass yard of ale.
A trip to the loo gives a disconcerting glimpse of of the cellar through the floor boards but it's all part of the traditional charm.
As a Banks and Taylor boozer, their beers were well represented: Dragon Slayer, Dragons Gold, Black Dragon Mild and Midsummer Ale alongside Naylors Velevet, Nethergate Wheat, Milton Pegasus and Bass as guests with one cider and 5 pumps unused.
I've always struggled to find a B&T beer which I could enjoy and my visit here proved no exception. With only the Bass really appealing I ended up being deeply disappointed by the ale offer.
A cracking pub but to misquote: Beer, beer everywhere and not a drop to drink.

On 7^th September 2018 - rating: 5
[User has posted 683 recommendations about 682 pubs]

View more reviews of Wellington Arms (6)

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Bedford by Roy Collins

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