The Looking Glass, Bristol

Years ago this pub was part of The Rummer, a large pub that had it’s front entrance in High Street and it’s lower “back bar” as it was known in All Saints Lane. After many years of closure, the premises were split in to two, and the back bar re-opened as the Rummer Hotel, while the front part initially remained closed but then became some type of theatrical venue. This was slightly confusing as it was rebranded as The Looking Glass at this time, and looked rather like a pub, even though it wasn’t. Now though, it has re-opened as a pub, and retains The Looking Glass name. Got that? Good. It’s a single room pub with some leaded bay windows at the front, parquet flooring and some old church pews for seating. It’s got a quirky / retro feel to the place with old standard lamps around, and even an old radiogram (younger readers may need to Google that) playing some jazz. It opens up slightly at the rear where there are a few more tables and chairs. A small shelf in the corner held a drum and a couple of accordions and elsewhere there was some large “splatter” artwork on the walls and a number of mirrors, some of which looked as though they may have been there from the pub’s original days. A projector was showing a black and white foreign language film, Russian I would think going on the subtitles, and there was no volume. There was also a small stage in one corner, some large speakers and a mixing desk opposite suggesting that music features prominently. They are apparently open until 2:00am on a weekend so it is no doubt somewhat livelier then than when we visited early evening, at which point it had a chilled out, relaxed vibe to it. The rear wall is clad in some dark wood panelling, but much of it still seems to be “work in progress” (they’ve been open for four weeks) with the ceiling in particular being a hotch potch of old boards. There is an exhibition space downstairs which is apparently going to be used as some sort of gallery. Beers on tap were Bath’s Gem, plus Acer and Californian Bitter from the Bristol Beer Factory. Ciders were Stowford Press on tap, plus Black Dragon and Burrow Hill served up from boxes behind the counter. All in all I quite liked this, and it’s certainly good to see the old place re-open again after being closed for many years.