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Crown Inn, Stockport
Stockport
SK4 1AR
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8½ of 10) see review guidelines
Will Larter left this review about Crown Inn
An unexpected visit to this old favourite, the result of my train being cancelled and the next one being an hour later. Great to see the pub open, and even better to find it looking smart and clean, with an impressive line-up of eight beers, with others due to come on soon. The pub has been closed for a few weeks following the departure of the previous manager; the new one has worked here before, so knows the pub well. Beers included three from Lancaster (Blonde, Amber and Black, with Red just gone off - at least two of these will be on regularly) plus a couple of milds, a house bitter, London Pride and Proper Job. Let's hope I have a few more cancelled trains soon.
On 8th August 2023
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3746 recommendations about 3483 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about Crown Inn
The Crown Inn has a curved L-shaped bar that support twelve handpumps. During a recent Tuesday evening visit two of these were unused and a couple were drawing mainstream ales, but the others were more interesting. To the right of the bar is an area with a stage for live music; this is where the three banks of three keg taps can be found. Along the left hand wall are two small seating areas, both with banquette seating and fireplaces. At the rear, behind the bar, is another seating area with a huge mirror on the wall. There are a couple of old serving hatches with bell ringers underneath that connect to the back of the bar. All seating areas have a television and all were airing muted Sky Sports. Out the back is a large beer yard with long beer festival tables and a covered stage area at the rear. There were ten or so vocal locals in and I found the governor to be extremely friendly. I think this place may have changed a bit since the passing of the previous governor, but I liked it and would return.
On 12th June 2022
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5251 recommendations about 5219 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Brainy Pool left this review about Crown Inn
the refurb seems to have preserved the multi-room layout, but splashed a load of grey paint everywhere as well as cheap drinks offers and promos for tribute acts / karaoke. It’s already looking a bit tatty and the windows need a good clean. The pub was pretty busy on a Friday with a mixed bag of ‘interesting’ but harmless characters and serious ale drinkers. It was a very good range of beer (better than Rob’s experience below) and the Bank Top Dark Mild was in very fine form. Not sure what to make of it overall, I wouldn’t spend a session here and the revamp seems confused, but the landlord was very friendly and accommodating.
On 16th April 2022
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1058 recommendations about 1023 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rob Hunter left this review about Crown Inn
It is, of course, great that this pub has reopened. It has spent most of 2021 closed due to the death of the previous landlord, and has now had a bit of a refurb and a smart paint job externally, without ripping the character out of the building. Last Friday afternoon there were a few punters in which is great to see in its first week of trading. At the bar are 12 hand pulls, 10 of which were on at the time, though disappointingly these are mainly from the big national and regional breweries (Marstons, Brains, St Austell) with a few hand pulls clipped with Robinsons and JW Lees ales (two breweries that do not excite me). I went for the Rev James Original by Brains, which was OK in itself, but the whole line-up is poor compared to the interesting selection this pub used to boast which often left me spoilt for choice.
As mentioned, it has only just reopened and some rooms seemed to be work in progress, the pool room had stuff piled up on the pool table for example. I believe there is an outdoor space to the rear (not investigated) that will be used for live music events - so perhaps they are shifting their focus to entertainment rather than interesting beer!
The pub looks nice and smart but I was left a bit disappointed and I feel it could do better. This isn't somewhere I can see myself rushing back to when there are so many other great real ale pubs and bars in Stockport.
On 15th November 2021
- rating: 6
[User has posted 750 recommendations about 598 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rob Hunter left this review about Crown Inn
Paid a visit on Saturday evening. My last visit was in 2016 so I was well overdue refreshing my memory. I think I counted 11 hand pulls at the bar, which is pretty impressive, but reading some of the earlier reviews suggest there may be 16 in which case I must have missed some. Of these there were two dark beers, both milds. One was the Dark Ruby by Sarah Hughes, which was very tempting but decided to try the Velvet Mild by Naylor's instead, which was very acceptable.
I love the traditional feel of this pub, down to the etched glass on the entrance door and the toilets, and its two rooms off to the left.
A good pub and one I would be happy to go back to.
On 11th March 2019
- rating: 8
[User has posted 750 recommendations about 598 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about Crown Inn
This pub must have one of the most dramatic settings in the UK, situated as it is, beneath the enormous Stockport viaduct, but it's worth a visit for far more than just the view. The pub has a traditional multiple room layout and aside from a few tastefully replaced fixtures and fittings, looks to have been relatively untouched over the years. You enter into the main bar which is bare boarded and has a white tiled passageway to the left which leads towards the rear of the building, passing other rooms along the way. The front bar has an L-shaped servery on the back wall with a painted counter and modern canopy which has details of the beers available on it. To the right is a rather sparsely furnished little room with minimal furnishing which appeared to be the least attractive of the four seating areas. More inviting were the two rooms to the left, both off the corridor. These have nice padded fixed benches, attractive tiled fireplaces and appropriately traditional decor. Similarly, there is a larger room behind the servery with the same seating options and its own fireplace and all of these rooms retain their old bell pushes. There was a reasonable crowd in on our Friday evening visit and a fairly mixed clientele for what is quite a traditional pub.
The pub has won numerous CAMRA accolades over the years and was a national pub of the year finalist back in 2009, so I had high hopes for the beer. Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed, with a wide ale selection available including Salopian Oracle, Milk Street Funky Monkey, Oakham Moon Landing, Poynton Viaduct and Vulcan, Hoptimism Cask Beer, Banks & Taylor Extra Stout, Stockport Stock Porter, Pictish Willamette and Borough Orange County IPA. I tried the Stock Porter which turned out to be the best pint I had on a day full of outstanding beer. The only drawback to my visit was the fairly hopeless service which saw a comedy of errors play out between the staff, resulting in me being stuck at the bar for a good 10 minutes or so before I got served.
Despite this drawback, I really loved this place and thought it was the pick of all the great pubs I visited in Stockport. It has a very warm, welcoming feel to it and the traditional interior is of the sort that makes you just want to settle down for a long session. Then there is the beer, which I found to be spot on and with such a wide selection to try, a longer session is really required to fully do the place justice.
On 8th January 2018
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about Crown Inn
A quick revisit found things as usual. I ended-up with a Poynton Viaduct which was passable (I paid the price for not sticking to class breweries like Oakham I suppose). Maybe I was unlucky, but so far my beer has been 50/50 over four attempts. The atmosphere and interior are first rate, mind you.
January 2017
Iconic freehouse located pretty spectacularly in the shadow of the vast rail viaduct that spans the Mersey and bisects this part of Stockport. Inside is a traditional multi-roomed old schooler with many original features - snugs, leather bench seats, bell-pushes, dividers and the like leading off the main bar. A quiet pub, so just the hubbub of conversation on my visit. One of the biggest simultaneous cask ranges in the UK, with (so I’m told – I didn’t bother to count) up to 16 ales available at any one time. Tried three of the beers, two from Stockport and one from Salopian. Quality was good, though one I think was at the fag-end of the barrel and in retrospect I should have taken it back. It’s a fine pub and absolutely worth a special trip to sample. Rated 9
On 1st December 2017
- rating: 8
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about Crown Inn
First visit for me so cannot comment on its ups and downs but by my scale this visit was an up there.
Firstly it’s impressive how they fit 16 pumps round that smallish bar, secondly great multi roomed traditional interior which was busy but not so busy that we couldn’t park ourselves in the smaller snug room with the green leather furniture and thirdly the beers I tried were in very good nick. I approached the bit of the bar that had the dark beers supporting the Winter Warmer festival that had just started and didn’t look any further than the B&T Brewery Edwin Taylor Extra Stout and Stockport Brewing Stock Porter which were on this part of the bar. I recall Borough Brewery Orange County Black IPA and Pictish Brewery Willamette also being on this section but no idea what was on the rest.
Another one of Stockport’s finest and it was good for me on my inaugural visit.
On 22nd November 2017
- rating: 9
[User has posted 2111 recommendations about 1992 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about Crown Inn
ORIGINAL REVIEW July 2017
A memorable location ,quite breath taking and a wonderful interior could not mask a real problem with both ale quality and the almost complete lack of customers on a Thursday evening,when other nearby ales houses were pretty busy.
The etched glass,multi room layout,front and rear snugs with generous leather banquettes and lots of original features are all worthy of a visit,but the 13 real ale and cider pumps had an unexceptional range ,and our three different pints were all below par,my Hawkeshead Lakeland Gold was rather too warm.
This was a brief crawl visit ,but our arrival doubled the number of punters and the barman was in a downbeat mood.Maybe there is insufficient throughput to justify 13 pulls ?Such a shame after arriving with high expectations.
UPDATE
A revisit as part of the PuG crawl found a much better range of ales in far better condition.My Oakham Moon Landing was in great nick,and the pub was lively without being heaving on a Friday late afternoon.Back on form and well worth a visit when in town.
On 17th November 2017
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Al Bundy left this review about Crown Inn
Great traditional pub with a large selection of cask ales. Situated, as noted, under the railway viaduct. There is a beer yard at the rear which can be quite noisy due to the traffic, trains and aeroplanes passing by.
On 25th August 2015
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3487 recommendations about 3390 pubs]