Ye Olde Custom House Inn, Chester

Like much of Chester's town centre, this is an interesting old building, or rather the amalgamation of two old buildings: one brick-built with white painted render below, the other made of red sandstone with a timber frame above. Also like many such buildings hereabouts, the floor levels are not congruent with street level, meaning that there are steep steps up from the pavement. Once inside, in the building on the left, there is a magnificent fireplace with a solid fuel stove set in it, then the bar which also serves the room in the other building. Four beers from Marstons are available, and on my visit these were Jennings Bitter and Cocker Hoop, Marstons Pedigree and Wychwood Hobgoblin. I had the Bitter, which was OK but not as good as when I've come across this beer in Cumbria. It was fairly quiet here at the time of my visit, apart from the sound checks going on in preparation for the Motown & Northern Soul disco that was promised for later in the day. Seating was a mix of ordinary chairs and deep leather sofas. It was pleasant enough, but the Marstons range is so familiar that there's literally nothing here to get excited about on the beer front.

Modernised pub that has now been opened out in the main room and has a few tables and chairs and not much else to be honest. There's another room at the rear of the bar but we didn't visit that one. It's a Marston's house and there were two beers from their stable on the bar, Wychwood Hobgoblin and Jennings Cocker Hoop. The Jennings was a decent pint, but not totally top notch. It's not going to be a regular on our Chester visits, but it was very useful for a last pint when we came out of Upstair At The Grill at 10:45.

Another well run Marstons house this one. Well kept beers, clean and tidy, so well worth a look in.