The Royal Oak, Bath

A short, pleasant walk from the city centre. Four ales (Doom Bar, Bath Gem, Butcombe Gold and Wickwar) in decent shape. The interior has a plethora of sporting memorabilia and there was a crowd enjoying the football on the big screens on my visit. Apparently there’s a skittle alley to the rear. This is a fairly straightforward pub which is tidy but not exceptional in the context of Bath. If it’s a lovely summer’s day, I’d say it’s a worthwhile walk to try it though.

With it’s plethora of sporting memorabilia and a packed crowd enjoying the football on a multitude of plasma screens, it would be easy to dismiss this as just another sports bar. But it’s actually much more than that – it strikes me as a proper, traditional pub that just happens to have a strong sports emphasis. It’s a long, single room bar, although with areas to both the left and right that are up a couple of steps and separated by low partitions, so they have the feeling of being somewhat separate. The flooring is painted boards and the walls a shade of mustard yellow, with a burgundy red colour on the woodwork. At the rear is a covered patio area, and also a function room that had a projector screen showing the football on a recent Sunday afternoon visit. As previously mentioned, there is plenty of sporting memorabilia around with a shelf full of rugby balls, cricketing photographs and football shirts adorning the walls and various national flags around the bar. Food is apparently offered, although the only evidence we saw on our visit was a jar of pickled eggs behind the bar. Besides the numerous screens dotted around, the commentary was also piped to additional speakers around the pub just to ensure you didn’t miss out. A little over the top for my taste, but then I’m not a sports fan. Tables were a mix match of different styles, round, square, high and low. Beers on offer were Gem, Doom Bar and Butcombe Gold. Ciders were Thatcher’s Gold, Stowford Press and Blackthorn.