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The Old Buttermarket, Canterbury
Canterbury
CT1 2HW
Pub Type
Nicholsons (Mitchells & Butlers)Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6½ of 10) see review guidelines
Pub SignMan left this review about The Old Buttermarket
This is a deceptively large Wetherspoons pub with an ideal location opposite the main entrance to Canterbury Cathedral. Upon entering, you might be fooled into thinking the pub is as small as its frontage suggests, as you find yourself in a small, square front bar with bare boards and limited seating. The servery is to the left and has a tidy dark wood counter and a rather typical Nicholson’s style bar back. There is a nice stained-glass window at the back of the room, but otherwise, it’s all a bit plain and cramped, so you’d be better off moving through to the much larger rear bar, which ironically has a considerably smaller bar counter to the front left, but ample seating options, mainly in the form of tables and chairs arranged across a split-level space. The walls have been decorated with an effective contrasting light/dark colour scheme, broken only by some paintings of various characters from The Canterbury Tales. Lots of mirrors and small partitioning screens can be found throughout this space, whilst to the rear, some steps lead up to a carpeted overspill space with more tables and chairs in a fairly dark space which eventually brightens as you near the back of the room, where some windows can be found. Padded button backed banquettes enhance the seating options here and there’s a load more Chaucer stuff on display, along with an unused TV screen, which made way for a dreadful pop soundtrack that played relentlessly in the background. A few seats on in the pleasant, cobbled square to the front of the pub allow for good people watching, but are permanently cast into the shade by the pub.
The five handpulls on the bar offered a choice of Nicholson’s pale Ale, Fullers London Pride, Taylor’s landlord and Wye Valley Butty Bach, with the final pull left unclipped. I tried the Butty Bach, which was in decent enough condition and served to me by a moderately interested barman.
I expected this place to be an uninspiring tourist trap and, whilst the place is hardly pushing for any ‘Best Pub in Town’ awards, it is nevertheless doing a competent enough job and serving up some reasonable ale in decent pub environment. I’d be more likely to use this place again just because of the convenience of its location than anything else, but as tourist pubs go, it’s not all that bad.
Date of visit – 1st May 2023
On 29th November 2023
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Old Buttermarket
Not wishing to end our tour of Kent's pubs in such a poor pub as the nearby City Arms, we moved on to this Nicholson's pub in the shadow of Canterbury's impressive (albeit scaffolded at present) cathedral.
We sat in the dark and atmospheric front bar of the pub. There were undoubtedly further spaces to the rear that we didn't explore.
On the beer front, Nicholson's outlets appear to have really gone downhill in recent years. I finally used the opportunity to sample my first St Austell Nicholson's Pale Ale, as neither London Pride nor Doom Bar appealed. It was better than I'd expected. But I won't be rushing to seek out another.
On 20th January 2022
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Graham Coombs left this review about The Old Buttermarket
A small Nicholson's pub right in the heart of the tourist area, with the main draw being outdoor tables in the market square. Inside is a smallish bar with flock wallpaper and brass fittings, with a larger dining room behind. On handpump were London Pride, Summer Lightning, Doom Bar and Old Rosie, plus the house brew from St Austell.
On 18th August 2019
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3339 recommendations about 3276 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Old Buttermarket
Nicholson's pub with the name = the address, located in a prime position by the cathedral entrance. As traditional in appearance as you would expect, both outside and within, with a smallish bar at the front and a split-level arrangement of various dining areas further back with a separate servery. A (duplicated) bank of five handpumps can be found on each counter, dispensing the 'house' NPA, Doom Bar, Pride, Windsor & Eton Knight of the Garter and the seasonal Thornbridge Wild Holly (£4.35).
On 29th December 2017
- rating: 7
[User has posted 8117 recommendations about 8117 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about The Old Buttermarket
A tastefully decorated Nicholson's house consisting of a front room with bar over to the left, a rear dining area and some tables and chairs out front. The timber work and bar counter were finished in a dark Jacobean colour and various sections were wallpapered. Five ales on handpump, so we went for the Windsor and Eaton Knight of the Garter. The pub seemed to be short staffed on our visit, so waiting at the bar took some time, as the two staff on were ferrying meals outside and around the front bar. The pub attracts the majority of tourists in the area. I don't think I'd like to visit here in peak season.
On 11th November 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
E TA left this review about The Old Buttermarket
This historic pub is currently run by Nicholson's. Previous embarrassing incarnations as a trendy bar, drug den and scabby dive are long gone, and the pub is now an exceptionally pleasant place to enjoy excellent beer and averagely good food. Its location – right by the Cathedral gate – means it attracts a fair load of tourists. The original building, which dates fron the 14th Century, has been adapted and changed over the centuries, most recently with the addition of a slightly anomalous conservatory at the back, but it remains atmospheric and quaint for the most part. Five ales on – I had Hopdaemon Incubus and Leeds Brewery's Gathering Storm stout, both in superb condition. The staff were mixed – a slightly idiotic prepubescent male yoof who insisted on addressing everyone as 'guys' and a Rubenesque female who was charming, helpful and efficient, while the manager was professional and welcoming. Well worth a visit and inclusion in a crawl.
On 29th January 2014
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3285 recommendations about 3250 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Old Blue left this review about The Old Buttermarket
This Nicholson’s pub opposite the cathedral gate is on the site of the17th century Black Boy coaching inn, which was apparently connected by tunnels to the cathedral itself as a monks’ escape route. The present building is early 20th century. The front bar is not huge, but like many locally the building goes back a long way, and through the doorway at the back are larger rear areas served from the other side of the central bar. Two banks of five hand pumps offer the same ale choice to each room, on Saturday being Elgood Black Dog (a decent pint at £3.35), Rudgate IPA and Adnams Southwold, with a reversed Revd James clip on the fourth and the fifth vacant. The Nicholson’s lunch menu is priced at £6.50-£8 and the ‘pub classics’ menu from £8, though I didn’t try it.
I found the service to be pretty indifferent, and waited what seemed to be a long time unacknowledged at a bar with only one other being served, before receiving fairly perfunctory service myself. Unsurprisingly however, given its location it seemed to be doing a brisk tourist lunch trade, which with the pricing at the top end of the local market I daresay makes it a good earner for Nicholsons. I may well have picked a bad day: I am sure I would rate this pub better had it not been the only one that weekend which I didn’t find welcoming from the start.
On 23rd January 2012
- rating: 6
[User has posted 271 recommendations about 270 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john mcgraw left this review about The Old Buttermarket
Right opposite the very grand entrance to the Canterbury Cathedral ( for which it will cost you £7.50 to get in)
On 18th April 2009
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2044 recommendations about 2025 pubs]