The Farmers Boy, St Albans Central, St. Albans

This is a cosy little traditional pub just a few minutes’ walk from St Albans City station. Entering directly to the main bar area, you find yourself in a room with modern floorboards, part panelled walls with plain uppers and some good-sized seating areas to either side. Low benches fill the front window bays, serving small tables with some comfy chairs in support. The space immediately to the left had been cordoned off for some reason, presumably related to the pandemic, but this was no great problem, as there are a good deal of settles and chairs down the right-hand side of the pub and even more further to the rear, past a dark fireplace with an attractive tile surround and small oval mirror above. The servery has an unattractive tongue and groove panelled counter front, but this is offset somewhat by the inclusion of nice chunky brass foot and hand rails and a characterful, cluttered old bar back. The walls throughout have been decorated with plain mirrors, old maps and black and white photos, which enhance the traditional feel of the pub and help you overlook a couple of the more questionable modern encroachments to the décor. Out to the rear right there is a sizable beer garden with loads of basic garden furniture and a fair amount of cover, but this was so popular on a Thursday evening, that it was no longer possible to get a seat out there when I arrived. A few more seats can also be found in a small fenced off pavement space to the front of the pub. Dance tunes played quietly in the background throughout my visit and I was a little surprised to see at least one child in the pub, with my visit being after 9pm. The pub has a pretty good reputation for its cask ale and puts on a number of beer festivals over the course of the year. The options were limited to just the three when I arrived – Woodford Wherry, Rat White Rat and something from the New Bristol Brewery – and a very polite and chatty barman poured and delivered a fine pint of the White Rat, which I enjoyed whilst watching the world go by from one of the bay window seats. I liked a lot of what I saw of this pub, in particular the friendly service and well-kept beer, but thought I probably wasn’t seeing it at its best, with most of the customers sat outside which diminished the atmosphere inside. I’d definitely give this one another chance though and have the feeling it could be one of the best St Albans has to offer, but on this particular occasion, it didn’t quite reach those heights.

The Farmers Boy is situated on the busy London Road. I quite liked the look of this pub from the outside. Once inside the bar faces in a single room,there are normal tables and chairs on the left side and bench seating and chairs on the right side,the right side extends to the rear and is down one step. There were five real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Bath Ales Jem,which went down very well,the other real ales were Thornebridge Brother Rabbit,Adnams Mosaic,Magic Rock Hire Wire and one more i failed to read my notes of. Background music was playing and the pub was quite busy on my Saturday afternoon visit. I quite liked this pub. Pub visited 24/6/2017

Bit of a shabby pub and still has the cooking fat smell on my visit.Regulars were have a game of darts but overall a bit quiet.lots of seating outside in the yard.Six beers on 3 Verulam,an Alecraft.an Oakham and Hobgoblin gold.The 2 I tried were a bit tired.

There were six hand pumps on here at the time of my visit, with two beers each from Verulam, Blue Monkey and Oakham. They all seemed to be pale and hoppy, so as this was my last pub of half a dozen I went for the lowest strength, which happened to be Verulam Half Centennial 2.8%. With a name like that, I should have known it would taste like lemon barley water. (Sigh) This was another pub on my brief circuit with a smell of cooking fat about it, but it was not as strong here as in the White Lion. The presence of a real fire helped to compensate somewhat, but this pub would not be top of my list for a revisit (fans of pale hoppy beers may beg to differ).