Devonshire Arms, Cambridge

This is a Milton brewery pub and as such is a fair bit cheaper than some of the more central ones visited. I have to say that I also preferred it in general to the pubs before it. I counted eight hand pumps with two unused and the rest including four Milton beers and Crouch Vale Happy Santa. I went for the Milton Saturnalia (£3.60) which was so good I stopped for a second. This was the best pub of the day for me.

This is a strange looking pub on approach, tacked on to the end of a row of residential houses, at two thirds of the height of the rest of the terrace. But once inside, you find yourself in a lovely, cosy two room pub with a real traditional feel to it. The front room has scuffed floorboards, tongue and groove panelled walls and a very high red ceiling and has been furnished with some nice, but not entirely comfy, fixed bench seating. These benches have been formed into booths and are supplemented by a couple of pews with tapestry style backs and cushions, all of which allows for a degree of intimacy wherever you seat yourself. A fairly small, angular servery is tucked away in the rear corner and has a few pewter tankards hung on the bar back alongside some prominent jars of pickled eggs. The rest of the room is decorated with a large Milton Brewery mirror and some technical drawings of college porches and doorways. A drinking shelf opposite the bar was liberally lined with flyers and listing magazines for a whole range of events across the city. A door here leads you into the rear room where plenty of additional seating can be found, including a few tables that are partly screened by short sections of partitioning wall. The décor here is mostly breweriana plus a high shelf stacked with a large collection of books. The room has its own, ale-free, stretch of servery and doors to the rear lead out to a decent looking garden. The pub is run by the local Milton Brewery and accordingly there were five of their beers on when I arrived - Nero, Pegasus, Lanterne Rouge, Sparta and a very nice drop of Jupiter which set me back a very reasonable £2.90. Portobello Market Porter and Milestone Sherwood were also on as guests. The bar staff seemed very friendly and a few punters were enjoying food from the decent looking menu. The back streets of Cambridge between the station and city centre are full of interesting pubs and this place is up there with the best of them. I immediately felt at home in here and could've happily stayed much longer. Well worth including on any crawl of the area.

Milton Brewery owned place, offering 5 of their own as well as 3 guests (as seems to be the Cambridge way). It's a lively place of an evening, and the friendly regulars are tolerant towards those of us completing a day's tour of the city's fine pubs. Definitely worth a visit and maybe next time I'll start here instead, to get a fuller impression.

Devonshire Arms official site - www.individualpubs.co.uk

Devonshire Arms official site - www.individualpubs.co.uk

We was not going to bother with this one but had to include it in the list after seeing in the local Cambridge and District branch newsletter in an earlier pub that ‘The Dev’, as it is known locally, had just been voted the branch pub of the year for 2012. Two room set up as described by previous reviewers, a front bar with a high ceiling, wood panelling, some comfy seating and a bit of an extravagant chandelier, and then a larger, more comfortable back bar with a wood burning stove and doors which lead out to the small garden space beyond. As mentioned, a former keg only outlet that was purchased by the Milton Brewery, done up and reopened in January 2010. 8 beers on offer, five from Milton and three guests and a lone cider including a couple from Buntingford and Humpty Dumpty breweries. But had to have a Milton Ale and the Saturnalia was a really good pint. The Landlord and Landlady are apparently part of the team that ran the Hobgobblin in Reading a few years back, so no surprise they’re running a decent pub here.

Excellent Milton pub, very quiet on the Monday evening that I popped in. just a few poor students cuddling pints. Visited as part of a mini crawl whilst on business in the city.