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Pub Of The Month - November 2024 with ROBCamra on the Pub Forum

The Lamplighter, Shirehampton, Bristol

Station Road
Shirehampton
Bristol
BS11 9XA

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Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines


Quinno _ left this review about The Lamplighter

St Austell pub acquired via their buy-out of Bath Ales. Impressive looking building, painted a powder-puff bluey green. Said colour carries on inside which is a fairly small oblong room splitting to a small pool room and an upper dining area off right. Everyone was preoccupied with Sunday lunch service and it took a while to get served. My choice from the two pumps of Bath Gem and Tribute was always going to be the latter and I got a good half (NBSS 3.5); was GBG listed for a number of years but appears to have recently dropped out. Shirehampton is hardly a thriving metropolis so this pub serves the locals to a decent standard but it's nothing the hardened pub ticker won't have encountered hundreds of times before. 6.5

On 2nd November 2024 - rating: 6
[User has posted 5462 recommendations about 5444 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Blackthorn _ left this review about The Lamplighter

Having been closed for a number of years and looking unlikely to ever re-open as a pub, it has managed to buck the current trend of pub closures and having had an extensive refurbishment as well as concerted campaign to get it re-open, and it was good to see it very busy on a recent Sunday mid-afternoon visit, although the downside of that was that it did seem quite noisy. That was probably mostly to do with a group of guys in one corner though, who were unable to converse at a normal volume and could only shout at each other. Kids seem to be well catered for with children’s dishes on the menu, high chairs and even colouring kits available on request.

The pub faces on to the river, although there is no riverside frontage, but there are a few picnic benches on two sides. Inside, the main room downstairs has a mixture of carpet and wood laminate flooring and is mostly painted in neutral shades with some contrasting deep aqua paintwork, and perhaps in a nod to it’s nautical location, a couple of internal windows were fashioned to look like ship’s port holes. The room was perhaps lacking a little in any character I thought, with only a couple of old black and white photographs of the locale and an old clock on the otherwise plain walls. Seating was a mixture of tables and chairs and high tables and stools. There was also further seating upstairs on a mezzanine level and a landing.

Food wise, the menu offered a decent looking selection of pub grub dishes, with options including a burger, ham egg & chips, scampi and chips and a range of pies. These were mostly priced in the £8 - £10 range. Presentation was perhaps on the trendy side, and we saw some Sunday roasts coming out with the beef sat on some Jenga style potato pieces, and this in turn topped with a Yorkshire pudding whilst the vegetables were served in separate miniature silver buckets.

Somewhat unusually for a pub not owned by bath Ales, theirs were the only beers on tap with a choice of Spa, Gem and Barnsey whilst the Beerd Monterey (a Bath Ales offshoot) appeared to have run out. Ciders were Thatcher’s Gold and Thatcher’s Dry.

On 13th October 2014 - rating: 6
[User has posted 2023 recommendations about 1929 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Jonathan Wilde left this review about The Lamplighter

After reopening a few days ago I thought I'd undertake my revisit today as it's probably a good 15 years since I last went, not that I recall too much about what the pub was like back then other than open.

As you enter from either the side or front entrance via the outside seating area set within slate chippings the bar greets you essentially straight ahead.

The main room is a mixture of normal tables and tall tables not laid up for food but with menus set on some advertising what appeared to be simple snacks/fare from what I could see people that had ordered food had received.

The pub has two other areas further to the main open area with structural columns, a sung down half a flight of stairs on the right as you enter from main entrance adjacent to the River Avon which has a nice globe in in and a couple of sofas and soft seats.

There is also an upstairs split level mezzanine area with stairs next to the ones down to the snug which at time of revisit was having a replan of the table layout with the half landing seemingly resolved and just the mezzanine to perfect.

At present tables aren't laid up for food which is good although there is a proliferation of buckets with knifes and forks, ketchup and mayo in them on most tables. Not sure how long that may last until they work out it's easier to present these at the table that ordered food when it arrives at the customer.

There was 4 real ales on 3 from Bath Ales and one American craft pale ale. Thatchers was also available on pump with both Gold and Dry.

The pub seems very child friendly and on my visit the Local MP Charlotte Leslie who had helped campaign for the reopening of the pub was present as there appeared to have been a story in the local press regarding the reopening so there were probably a few associated customers from that still loitering about as I'm not sure how many people in Shirehampton generally where suits. Which after today's revisit seemed to have not been a major factor.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Celebrations-Shirehampton-community-pub/story-23031441-detail/story.html

24/01/14

Further to the various planning on goings today's Observer (Round up of The Post news stories but free) has dropped through my door and plans to hopefully reopen by Spring are swinging into action with new Owners in place. Building now has scaffolding around it looking at the picture. The sale of the extensive gardens for housing development is nearing conclusion but the pub should be returning as a family friendly community pub soon. One to keep an eye out for the website announcing the opening date.

On 7th October 2014 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 366 recommendations about 348 pubs]