Kings Head, Bristol

Conveniently situated on the main road into the City Centre from Temple Meads station, The Kings Head is a small attractive pub that features in CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. The pub is reputed to date back to around 1660 and really is a splendid survivor in an area of much office development over the years. Bearing something of a resemblance to an antique shop externally, a narrow passageway with the bar counter on the right as you enter leads down to a wider enclosed screened drinking area – The Tramcar Snug – so called because of its resemblance to a tram carriage. The corridor walls are dark wood panelled and feature many interesting pictures of old Bristol, including a number of photographs of the pub in earlier days as an Ashton Gate Brewery house and later as a Georges Bristol Brewery house. The existence of a Courage mirror reminds us that Georges fell into the hands of Courage many moons ago. Low ceilings and the absence of any music, fruit machines etc contribute towards a splendid atmosphere where drinking and conversation rule. The architectural highlight of the pub is the ornate bar back with brass plaques advertising Cigars, Brandy, Whiskey etc which runs all the way down into the Tramcar Snug. Apart from this snug, the narrowness of the bar area means that seating is restricted to bar stools along the length of the bar counter and several tables under the front window. 4 handpumps were offering Wadworths 6X, Butcombe Gold plus Sharps Doom Bar and Cornish Coaster, all of which appear to be regular offerings. Both the Wadworths and the Butcombe – each at £ 3.20p per pint – were in excellent condition. The pub is a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular. There are pubs not too far away that offer a much wider selection of real ales but, taking the experience as a whole, this is still my favourite Bristol pub by a considerable margin. If you only have time to visit one Bristol pub, make it this one.

As well reported below this is a fantastic old time traditional pub that has an air of timelessness about it, due to its unique interior which does indeed put it in the Camra heritage pubs inventory list (the only one in Bristol). As well as the ornate Victorian bar back and the tram car snug, the walls are covered in lots of old B&W pictures of Bristol in former days and the shelves are festooned with memorabilia, old bottles and advertising for long lost drink brands. All this in such a small pub, and four well kept ales, which were the same as reported by Andy below with the one he could not remember being Butcombe Gold. And I totally agree with Andy’s last sentiment in that if you are on an ale crawl around Bristol then it’s a must visit.