The Museum Vaults, Sunderland

The pub was starting to get quite full on our visit as there was a punk band setting up their gear in the back room. The name of the band was the FU's, good to see the pub hosting live music and drawing in the punters. The pub has fairly low ceilings and the interior isn't that big, so I reckon it could get quite loud. Two handpumps serving Great North Eastern Brewing Golden Tap and Darwin Cyborg Bette. Both beers were in good nick and prices good.

In all my previous visits to Sunderland, I'd never managed to find this pub open. With both Google and WhatPub showing 5pm opening times and being booked on a train at 5:30pm, I was planning a very swift visit. However, having left the King's Arms in nearby Deptford a little earlier than planned, I decided to quickly visit the Ship Isis before the Museum Vaults opened. Imagine my surprise to find the Museum Vaults open at 4:45, with a couple of customers already inside drinking. I asked the barman what time they opened and apparently they open at 3pm meaning that their Facebook times were actually correct. As such, if you go on a Saturday, you should find them open at midday. Two ales were on. These were Three Brothers Sabro & Idaho Session 7 IPA and Consett Ale Works Steelworkers Blonde. I also spotted Thatcher's Cheddar Valley cider in boxes at the end of the bar. Despite my natural inclination towards the cider, I decided to give the Three Brothers beer a try and very nice it was too. Sitting in the window, I could see most of the pub, apart from the rear which was in darkness. There is plenty of memorabilia to admire on the walls and a TV was showing classic Premier League goals with the 2 punters reminiscing, before a third local character entered. My visit was every much as brief as I'd planned, as I still had time for one more pub before heading home! But I'll be looking to return here someday.

Small two room pub with the counter in the front room housing three pulls, only Greene King IPA and a rather nice Styrian Blonde from Great North Eastern. Dreary collection of national kegs. Lots of nice original touches in this basic boozer.

This pub, located on a busy main road into the city, first opened in 1871 and has been managed by the same family for the last forty years, serving a wide cross section of the local community. The front bar has what might be one of the stickiest, in urgent need of replacing carpets I've ever seen, but funnily enough, to remove it would be to lose part of the intrinsic appeal of the place. There are dark wood beams across the ceiling and the bar runs down the right hand side with a pleasant dark wood counter and a tidy bar back with some original signage for real ales. Other oddities such as a set of bellows, some old tankards and a tambourine can also be found on the bar back - just part of the accumulation of the last forty years I suppose. Fixed bench seating runs around the perimeter, split midway by a fireplace, above which is a TV screen showing muted football. Old lamps provide atmospheric low-level lighting which seems befitting of a room such as this. The front windows have adverts for the likes of Guinness to obscure them, but the top panes looked older and had some decorative merit. A doorway leads through to the rear room, also carpeted and with more fixed benches and low stools. A lit fireplace over on the right hand wall helped warm the space up considerably and was surrounded by modern floral wallpaper. A couple of nice stained glass partitioning screens down the left hand side of the room create a series of small seating booths and there is a compact serving area over to the right, although it's just as easy to return to the main bar through the doorway. A marvellous stained glass door to the rear leads to the toilets and there were a collection of books and a great retro juke box to spend time perusing. Music was playing fairly loudly on a Saturday evening, which wasn't entirely fitting, but didn't seem to deter a good crowd of drinkers. In 2013 the pub was made the subject of a short documentary film called 'The Vaults', focussing on the pub's eclectic range of customers. I thought I might find a good range of beers here, but there were just the two options available - Maxim Anderson's Best Scotch and Wylam Collingwood Pale. The Best Scotch cost £3.00 for a pint and was in excellent condition - a very enjoyable malty Winter brew. This is a really interesting pub and one that has the unmistakable feel of being well loved by the local community. I found the place very easy to settle down in and enjoyed an excellent pint of well kept beer. This might not rank as one of the city's top beer destinations, but as an all round package I thought it was very good and one of a number of excellent pubs at this end of town.

A proper traditional pub. Two rooms, laid out one behind the other. Main drinkery as you enter with dark wood bar, green carpet, green leatherette benches, real fire and stained glass inlay with pub name picked out. The rear room is darker and a proper little gothic retreat. Faint smell of damp, unfortunately. Various bits of Sunderland FC ephemera on walls and it’s not a million miles away from the ground. Basic rear patio needed some tidying. Three pumps with two ales - Sonnet Taste & Heart and Acton Office Dog (very good nick). Proper pair of character locals in situ with an animated discussion underway regarding the best producer of various crisp flavours, though the general atmosphere seemed a bit melancholic underneath. Big screen TV, with another massive old 80s valve model above the entrance! Newly refitted bogs were let down by a stink of old piss and had no soap. Bit of a curate’s egg really - could have been indispensable, but….