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Disappointment of the week with Real Ale Ray
on the Pub Forum
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about Wm. Hawkes
Small, two-roomed boozer in the Old Town area of Hull, where almost every inch of the walls and ceilings is covered in breweriana and other artefacts. We sat in the rear room next to a Vespa motorbike. Well behaved children are allowed in during the daytime.
5 real ales were on - Ossett White Rat, Butterley & Voodoo & Bradfield Farmer's Blonde & Farmer's Stout.
Another Hull pub that is full of character and recommended.
On 10th January 2022
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rob Hunter left this review about Wm. Hawkes
Reading the earlier reviews, it seems this has not always been a pub, which is surprising as it is convincingly olde worlde on the inside. Very dark wood covered in brasses, tankards suspended from the ceiling, horns above the bar, all looking like a collection that has been built up over many years.
An impressive nine cask ales at the bar - I went for Plum Porter by Hilltop at £1.70 for a half (£3.40 a pint).
There is also a back room which leads to the toilets. There are candles on every table, and all of them were lit which I thought was a nice touch for the limited custom in the afternoon. Even the candles in the empty back room were all lit. It's a dark but cosy place, and I liked it.
On 20th February 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 Wm. Hawkes
This is the sister pub of the nearby Lion & Key and Walters venues and is perhaps the closest of the three to a full-on traditional pub, despite the fact that this was, until recently, a solicitors office. You enter to a compact front bar with dark floorboards and wall panels which make the place look like a historic Old Town pub. The servery is immediately to the right upon entry, to the point that I was still propping the front door open with my boot whilst ordering my pint. The bar, in keeping with the rest of the room, has a dark wood counter, a modest bar back and a canopy with all the beers listed across its length. The canopy also has various hunting horns and bugles hung from it, and this hunting theme continues through the rest of the pub, hinting at the building's past use as a gunmaker's shop. For all the dark wood panelling in this front bar, very little of it is actually on show, thanks to liberal decoration with items such as horse brasses, tobacco tins, tankards, pans, ladles, clocks, paintings, sketches, candles and much more besides including an ancient looking telephone on the end wall. Seating is limited to a few low stools around sturdy iron-bottomed tables along the left hand wall. A passageway beyond the bar leads you past an old safe set into the bare brick wall with a few road signs opposite, into a smart rear room with comfy bench seating around the perimeter with standard chairs and low stools elsewhere. There were loads more bits on show here including a huge display case showing a stuffed fox sniffing out a stuffed rabbit. Both rooms have the large cartwheel light fixtures seen in the Lion & Key, but unlike that pub, a music soundtrack was playing quietly in the background.
This place also shared a very similar beer range with its sister pubs, offering Cat's Head Pale Ale and The Reaper, Neepsend Red Equinox and CETO, White Rose Original Blonde, Cottage Pullman and Hilltop Classic Bitter and HTC. Bar blockers were in full effect on a busy Saturday evening, so I couldn't see if there was much of a keg range, but my pint of Red Equinox was certainly in good shape and the bar staff seemed like a friendly and well drilled bunch.
I liked this place, which I thought was a cosy, comfortable little pub and I was surprised to learn that it was a recent conversion rather than a venerable Hull institution. The place perhaps doesn't offer too much of a point of differentiation from the Lion & Key, which means that, having just come from one to the other, it felt a bit like an overspill rather than a stand-alone venue, but even so, I thought there was a lot going for this place and I'd happily visit again.
On 19th February 2017
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Aqualung . left this review about Wm. Hawkes
This place is not an original pub but a fair effort has been made to make it look like one with dark wood and bric-a-brac everywhere.
It's a long narrow room with the bar on the right which unfortunately has bar stools so I didn't get to note all the beers but did see that there were nine hand pumps with one unused, Cathead Chocolate Mint Stout, Lemonade & Pale, RAW Best and something from White Rose. I went for the Stout (£3.00) which was excellent but served in a stupid dimple mug with no choice offered. Looking around everyone was drinking from these hideous vessels. The top of the table I sat at was decidedly sticky. I don't like these places that automatically give you dimple mugs and overall I found this place a bit trendy. It was the least favourite of the Scale Lane trio.
On 2nd August 2016
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2143 recommendations about 2143 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about Wm. Hawkes
Another of the excellent Old Town pubs, but - like many others - appearances are deceptive and it hasn't always been the traditional alehouse that it now appears. Still, the interior has been very well done and is stuffed (literally in a couple of cases) full of all kinds of memorabilia. Fine range of real ales on handpump, including the Cannon Fire red porter from Sperrin.
On 17th April 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about Wm. Hawkes
Wm Hawkes actually stands for William Hawkes, a former gunmaker upon this site. Until relatively recently this was an old solicitors office and has been made to look aged, very successfully too. A small main bar on entry with black varnish wood panelling and stuffed full of bric-a-brac loads of horse brasses, a cart wheel on the ceiling, loads of tobacco boxes, various bulges above the bar, lots of hanging pewters and jugs, framed prints etc. Through an arch to a larger rear room with more of the same, including a large taxidermy fox hunting a stuffed rabbit. Nine pumps with eight on; my Black Country Fireside was in very good shape and slipped down nicely. One of the city centre’s best.
On 12th April 2016
- rating: 9
[User has posted 5072 recommendations about 5055 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about Wm. Hawkes
The pub takes its name from a William Hawkes, who made guns and rifles here back in 1810. I would have rated this pub an eight, only that the beer I choose was rank, along with a couple of other unfortunate PG crawlers, who choose the same beer.
The barmaid did explain that the so called Cathead IPA, was meant to taste like that. The beer was in good condition, so it was down to preference. I should have asked for a taster, prior to purchase, but nevertheless she did change it for a Sperrin Headhunter, which was most admirable of her.
On 22nd March 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about Wm. Hawkes
Can't really add to Steve's description below and find myself in total agreement with his thoughts including the long rabbit.The way this "faux" pub is put together reminds me very much of the Jerusalem Tavern in London,a favourite of mine and as such I like this one very much as well.
On 21st March 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1871 recommendations about 1844 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about Wm. Hawkes
Well I wouldn’t have credited that this bar is only four years old and a former solicitors or something similar if I hadn’t been told by a member of the Pubs Galore crawl team who have visited here before.
The black painted stained glass frontage looks like something straight out of a Dickens novel and inside the aged theme is continued and the two rooms look like they could have been there for over 100 years. But the fact that it’s all faux is actually quite impressive, as is the fact that the various collections of old beer bottles, tobacco tins, horse brasses, beer tankards and bottles etc have been deliberately aged to look like they have been there significantly longer than they actually have.
As well as the aforementioned wagon wheel the back room is also aged by a large dusty framed fox stalking a hiding rabbit. But the eagle eyed will spot that the taxidermist has taken liberties with the positioning of the rabbit head and white tail, unless it was genuinely the longest rabbit who ever lived.
The available beers for our visit were as described below and fortunately my Wentworth Blueberry Stout was in excellent nick and definitely seemed a better choice than the couple of the pub chains own Cat Head Brewery beers that the barmaid referred to as still work in progress.
I agree with Mr Fastard that the sister pub The Lion & Key has more about it , but this is still a good drinking option and certainly recommended for a look when in Hull.
On 20th March 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2110 recommendations about 1992 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about Wm. Hawkes
Sister pub to the Lion & Key,it has quite a small interior but lots of charm.The bar room is followed by a back lounge with dark panelling and the trade mark wagon wheel hangs from the ceiling.Decoration features a vast array of horse brasses and old beer bottles and it's firmly pitched as an ale house.The 9 handpumps were drawing Sperrin Head Hunter,Yates Undercliff,Canon Fire and Holy Joe ,Wentworth Blueberry Stout,Black Country Fireside,Cathead Mild and IPA (sadly out of condition,or just a poor brew ? )
I preferred the Lion & Key but this place is fine if crawling the area but maybe consider carefully before ordering one of the "house" Cathead ales.
On 20th March 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]