George & Dragon, Belper

Cosy L-shaped pub on the main road through town. This place has a quarry stone floored interior based around the L-shaped servery with runs along the wall opposite the entrance before turning 90 degrees to run down the right-hand side. The front part of the pub is a pleasant space with a large window bay to the left that looked like a nice, bright space to grab a seat, and a fireplace with a modern stove inside to the right, pumping out plenty of heat on a cold Winter’s afternoon. The fireplace also boasts an impressive George and Dragon image, cast in metal above the large stone lintel. The pub has a vaguely traditional feel, thanks to some exposed stone walls and a few bits of half height panelling, although the bar has a fairly modern looking bar back, and a pleasant dark wood counter, broken at the corner by a large stone section of wall. High shelves around the room are stocked with old bottles, books, spirit miniatures and the like, whilst the walls have been decorated with local photos, small display cabinets full of random nick-nacks, and a few brewery mirrors. The room opens out to the rear right, into something approximating a Public Bar space, complete with additional seating and a large screen showing Sky Sports News with the sound up. Five ales were on the go when I visited – Woodforde Volt, Draught Bass, Falstaff 3 Face, Abbeydale Absolution and Thornbridge Roisin. The staff were a friendly bunch and one of them served me a good pint of the Volt. There were plenty of customers coming and going throughout my visit, many of whom were sampling the ales, and this helped ensure a good atmosphere. I thought this place had a good mix between comfy seating areas and a more down to earth rear space, which helped it appeal to a wider customer base than some of the other pubs I saw around town. The beer was good and the staff were welcoming, so I’d definitely add this to future crawls around town.

Former coaching inn that has a narrow bar at the front, which opens into a more spacious room at the rear. The interior is nicely appointed, if not a bit on the dark side. Bass is a regular beer here. On our visit, the 4 guests were Whim Flower Power, Peakstones Rock Bridge Pale, Castle Rock Cosmic Dancer & Black Hole No Escape. We too made the mistake of trying the door knob on the wrong side of the door!

Facebook page of George & Dragon - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of George & Dragon - www.facebook.com

Large Georgian coaching inn with real ales from Abbeydale, Tower, Dukeries Greene King plus Bass. We selected Dukeries Elsi Pale and Tower East Mill bitter which were ok.

The George and Dragon is a stone built pub and the only pub on bridge street to elude me and the wife,so i had to give it a go. Once inside the main room is dogged legged in shape with the bar facing,the font area has a tiled floor and comfy bench seating,the rear area is carpeted and has pew seating and normal tables and chairs,there is a raised area to the rear which had darts boards,but could be used as a stage. There were a couple of TVs showing music videos. There is also a smaller room to the rear left which is behind the bar. There were six real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Falstaff Whistler which went down well,the other beers were Exmoor Gold,Bass,Abbeydale Dark Mass,GK Abbot and East Mill bitter,a special brew for the fesival. I quite took to this pub. Pub visited 11/7/2015