The Albion, Accrington

I'm sorry to hear Mr Buttons "unsavoury" view of the Albion. Here i will give a locals view of the pub. I've been a Claytoner all my life and know all the pubs and a lot of the people in Clayton. True there are people in the town who might give the place a bad name but none more so than any other town or city. The Albion itself is again under new ownership and are trying their best to eradicate any misbehavors that enter the place. The beer is well kept, prices are in keeping with the rest of the town and to cap it all my partner works part time in there. The place is geared for music, be it live or karaoke and the atmosphere is predominately very good. All in all a great pub and well worth a visit. Expect local characters as you would in any small town and you are in for a good evening. The pub trade tends to struggle throught the week so a weekend visit would be recommended.

The Albion doesn’t look particularly inspiring from the outside and it has a particularly unsavoury history that led to a severe but relatively tasteful refurbishment and change of direction a few years ago. It is some time since I have been here (on the back of a Good Pub Guide recommendation) but I found a quite universally appealing place with a couple of decent and (to me) unusual ales. The interior is divided into 3, the main bar with bare floors, Sky TV and several old pub pictures on the walls, a small lounge bar and a pool room. There is also a small outside terrace with some seats overlooking the canal although it must be said the view is not particularly picturesque. More recent reports I have seen suggest that the pub is generally geared towards live bands / karaoke / poker nights etc so it isn’t really the sort of place I would fancy in an evening. It's not really situated anywhere to attract anyone other than locals, an element of whom appear to be quite on the unsavoury side but it has a car park and makes a decent pre-match pint for anyone going to watch Accrington Stanley (I believe some people do) a couple of miles down the road or Gawthorpe Hall National Trust Property at nearby Padiham.