Royal Oak, St. Ives

Excellent multi-roomed town centre pub. There was a good choice of ales on my visit, but a problem with the cellar cooling on a hot day limited my options. I sampled both Brewsters Hopehead and Oakham Inferno and both were just about holding up. There was also Royal Oak Bitter and a couple of Westons Ciders. Fortunately, the lager options included Pilsener Urquell, so a cool drink was available (with Pravha as another option). The couple running the pub alerted me to the cellar problem and were friendly and conversational throughout my visit. Definitely a must-visit in this fine Cambridgeshire town.

Already well described so I'll stick with pointing out that this is an historic town centre boozer with an interesting layout and comfortable, local feel to it. The welcome here was friendly and it's a nice place to be. Beers on were Royal Oak Best Bitter, Newby Wyke Black Beards, Oakham Inferno and Musashi. Not a bad selection and the latter was very good, on decent form and well poured so held the attention for the evening. The only pub I visited in St. Ives as we didn't feel the need to move.

A good locals' pub with an interesting layout. There is a small vertical drinking bar at the front, with a cosier area behind the bar. The other side has a front corner room, but the largest room is to the rear, which hosts a brace of dartboards and occasional live music. The whole place has a lived in, not to say slightly decrepit, feel. At the rear is a patio area, more of a yard really. An excellent range of beers is on offer, mainly from the smaller and more unusual breweries in the region and seemed in excellent condition. CAMRA discount was forced upon me. Did not appear to sell hot food but advertised some home-made baps 'in the fridge'.

The third of St Ives GBG entries and my favourite of the trio.There is a small bar section to the right,with a snug to the left with a number of sofas and a flatscreen for World Cup footie.Around the back there is a raised lounge area with fitted benches around the walls,while the lower level had a huge inglenook with a darts board mounted above.There are a number of exposed timbers in this section and there is an internal window seperating it from the back lounge.All the furniture is a bit worn and the pub has a lived in feel,infact a small fireplace on the way to the loos was full of childrens toys.The pub garden is rough ,just some pic nic benches and more discarded trikes. There were 4 handpumps offering Old Rosie cider,a house Royal Oak Best provenace unknown but cheap with the guests Newby Wyke Banquo and Oakham Inferno both on good form. There is a juke box with some excellent songs,so we settled down and got quaffing.Relaxing if a bit down at heel but would be the pub I revist when next in St Ives.

The Royal Oak is a former Ind Coope pub that I'd been to before years ago when it did a good pint of their Burton Ale. It's a long narrow place with beams and wooden floors. The bar servery has two sides, the main one at the front and a smaller one at the rear. There is a juke box and a couple of dart boards that were obstructed by tables. There was a TV screen near where I sat that was turned off. There are six hand pumps at the front and four at the rear but with some overlapping. The choice boiled down to Royal Oak Best (a GK house beer), two ciders, Great Oakley Delapre Dark, Robinson's Trooper, Oakham Inferno and one called Emma's Best (another house beer?). I went for the Great Oakley beer (£3.80) which was first class. Sadly I missed out on the CAMRA discount. This old pub is well worth a visit.