The Honest John, Todmorden

A cafe with a few standard keg beers in an impressive building - nothing to see move along.

Former good looking Natwest branch,up some steps to the entrance with a front room with art to the right and the tap room to the rear,which does have more of a cafe/bar feel.Popular coffee venue in the morning,there were still two handpumps operating offering Bradfields Farmers Blonde and another low strength pale which wouldn't mark this place out as suitable for a lads session venue.However the barmaid at The Pub said that this is the place for cocktails in Tod so it could be lively with a younger crowd in the evening.

Cannot add much more to Rob Hunters detailed description only that i did like what looked like the original wood flooring in the larger of the two rooms,the mosaic tiled floor and the high ceiling which had a square area in the centre which had windows for extra light. There was an attractive bar with a smart arrangement of bottles ect on the back wall. Quite a few craft beers were to be had and all the 3 cask pumps were funcioning.

This is a nice pleasant café bar style place, which I assume has only opened fairly recently. It is in what used to be a branch of the NatWest, with their logo still etched into the front windows. It is lacking in external signage which made it a bit hard to find, though there are a couple of understated A4 notices in the windows to advertise the existence of the place and that it is open. Hopefully some more noticeable signage will be on its way. Inside there is a small room to the front which I did not investigate, then into the main bar area which consists of the servery along the right hand wall, bare boards, a mix of high and low seating, and a fireplace / wood burner. It has a modern contemporary feel, quite stylish, as would be expected for a café bar, yet retaining the traditional ceiling with ornate plasterwork. Down to business, at the time of my visit just one of the three hand pulls was in service, offering "Blonde-I-Beach" by Big Clock at £1.75 for a half. One of the other pumps was clipped but turned round and either was, or is going to be, a bitter of some description. The other pump was unclipped. It was fairly quiet at the time of my weekday visit with a couple of other people in. There are no plans for hot food as they have no kitchen facilities, but they are planning on offering a cheeseboard type thing. This appears to be offering something a bit different in Todmorden, and I wish it well. Look out for the original bank features such as the bank vault doors.