The Dean's Walk Inn, Gloucester

Tucked away alongside the railway arches but just a short stroll across the road from the cathedral, first impressions would suggest that this is something of a rugby pub, with colourful murals covering much of the outside and even a giant rugby ball protruding from the roof, which is all quite appropriate given that the Kingsholm Stadium is just a couple of minutes walk away. Internally though, other than a couple of TV screens dotted around, there was little evidence of this, and it certainly has more of a traditional pub feel to it than a sports bar. Internally it’s divided in to a couple of different rooms with a lounge bar to the left and a public bar to the right, although some use of partitioning breaks up the space further. The lounge bar had a few black beams on the ceiling, and some attractive, pale mottled tiling on the floor. The partitioning was made from the same black timberwork as the beams on the ceiling and several of them included attractive stained glass with inscriptions including Lounge, Snug and Smoking Room. Several shelves were full of old paperback books and a large brick fireplace off to the left housed both a wood burning stove and a bread oven. A number of old metal advertising signs were on the walls, and these included Wills Cigarettes and the local Hilton’s Boots & Shoes. Seating was mostly fixed wooden pews, with a scattering of blue velvet topped bar stools and some high chairs at the bar. Unfortunately despite two pumps on the bar, there was no real ale available with both of them having reversed Doom Bar clips. Ciders fared much better though with Thatcher’s Gold, Blackthorn, Strongbow, Addlestones, Natch, Stowford Press and Carling Dark Fruit. Overall, I thought this was a decent enough pub, but somehow just slightly lacked something, although it’s difficult to put my finger on exactly what. Certainly it was very quiet in there, perhaps just a bit of background music may have helped a little.