The White Hart Inn, Exeter

Very traditional coaching inn and now a Marston's pub / restaurant / hotel. The slightly split-level bar, accessed by non-residents via the courtyard, has been refurbished but in a reasonably sympathetic way. Disappointingly, though, just Pedigree (£6.20 with a packet of salted peanuts) available from the four handpumps.

This is a very large, rambling old pub and hotel with a vast, confusing interior that probably required multiple visits to properly take in. Entering via a narrow cobbled courtyard which separates the pub and hotel parts of the building, I found myself reaching the main bar area from the lower courtyard entrance. This is a bare boarded room with the servery down the left wall, directly opposite the front door. The bar has an unusual counter front with lots of drawers built into it, and a nice exposed stonework bar back. Some chairs and tub chairs stand opposite the bar and in a small space to the right of the counter, but this isn’t really much of a seating area, so most punters will move elsewhere. Steps up to the front take you into a cosy, olde worlde feeling dining room with pre-set tables, lots of dark wood and decent views of the street outside. Moving towards the rear from the bar area, you drop down some steps onto a landing with a few more tables and chairs in a fairly unremarkable plain painted area. There are lots of mirrors here, which make the space feel quite deceptive and a little ‘hall of mirrors’-esque on your first visit. A door here leads out to a so-called ‘Secret Garden’, which looked a bit uninspiring compared to the pleasant courtyard with its palm trees and views of the old building. Moving on a little further, through a mirrored passage, you emerge into a large rear room with rows of tables and chairs in a bare brick walled space which had a bit of a cellar bar feel to it. In addition to all this, there appear to be several more rooms in the hotel side of the building, to the right of the courtyard, but they all appeared empty, so I didn’t wander through. Modern pop music was playing in the background throughout my visit and there was a modest crowd, mainly older folk popping in for some lunch, when I arrived on a Monday afternoon. A friendly old-school barmaid greeted me on arrival and I was faced with a choice of Marston beers on the row on handpulls, with options extending to Ringwood Razorback, Wychwood Hobgoblin and Dirty Tackle and Banks’s Sunbeam, with the latter coming in at £1.85 for a well conditioned half. This place definitely has a lot of character, thanks to its multiple room interior, pleasant courtyard and period appropriate decor, making it worth a visit for a bit of exploration. The beer, whilst in good nick, is nothing you won’t have encountered many times before, so ultimately, enjoyment of this pub will likely come down to your enjoyment of such brews or perhaps whether you intend to come here for some food as well. A good wildcard option for any city centre crawl.

An old coaching inn, opposite Neverspoons. You pay your money, you take your chance. A Marstons house and the sunbeam was better than I could have hoped for.