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Poll for date of Halifax crawl. with ROBCamra
on the Pub Forum
Image posted by S Armstrong
Submitted on Thursday, 1st February 2024
With picture contributions to 916 other pubs
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Detail Pages
Mountain Daisy, Millfield, Sunderland
Sunderland
SR4 7XT
Served areas
Reviews of Mountain Daisy (Average Rating: 8 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Mountain Daisy
Built in 1901, this is an enormous building originally built as a hotel but now operating solely as a pub in the front ground floor area. The pub is close to the Millfield Metro stop but can be easily reached on foot from the city centre within 15 minutes or so. The front door leads you into a relatively unspectacular main bar – a wide, bare boarded space served by a long, dark wood counter along the rear wall. Pew and standard chair seating has been arranged under the front windows, which have bright stained glass inserts, leaving a good amount of standing room in between. The walls have mostly been painted in plain colours or covered with dated striped wallpaper and miscellaneous paintings whilst a children’s toy grabber arcade machine stands incongruously on the front wall. The room extends to the rear right, into a space that was clearly a separate room in the past and still feels that way now to a degree. Nice exposed brick walls and dark wood flooring make it look quite appealing, but the space is dominated by a pool table and dartboard, with a juke box nearby, thereby reducing the space for seating. Several TV screens throughout were showing live football with the commentary competing against some piped music.
There is a door in the rear left corner leading into a side vestibule which used to house the off-sales hatch. From here you can access the pub’s undoubted highlight – the spectacular Buffet Bar. The room is usually kept locked, but the friendly guvnor was happy to open the room up for me and left me to explore. The room was designed by Craven Dunhill who are responsible for some of the finest pub ceramics in the country (see also: Golden Cross, Cardiff) and this room has been remarkably well preserved. To the right is an amazing curved, glazed tile bar counter with a marble effect top. The counter front has a yellow and green animal pattern. The walls are also tiled and incorporate a number of superb Craven Dunhill tile paintings (I recognised Tyne and Wearmouth Bridges and what I took to be Durham Cathedral), as well as a tile frieze. The windows have stained glass images of drinkers in various poses, the floor has a mosaic tile pattern with repeated leaf motif and there is a tiled fireplace with dark wood surround on the rear wall. Old padded benches with matching upholstered chairs fit in with the room’s traditional look and feel and the door into the room has an etched glass pane bearing the word ‘Buffet’. This really is an outstanding room and I was very pleased to be able to take a look round at my leisure.
The pub has recently reintroduced real ale on the bar, with a couple of handpulls now evident, one of which was in use, dispensing Maxim Swedish Blonde at a bargain £2.10 a pint. My pint was in good nick and I couldn’t fault the service from the genial couple who seemingly run the place.
This is a destination pub for anyone interested in pub architecture and heritage. If this pub was in the city centre, I suspect it would be doing a roaring trade, but its marginal location perhaps limits potential custom. The return of real ale may help encourage a few more people to visit and perhaps lead to a permanent reopening of the Buffet Bar, which would be fitting for such a magnificent space.
On 18th February 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about The Mountain Daisy
Featured in Camra's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. Once through the doors, you enter the main bar and lounge, which takes up the entire front space. The front lounge flows to the rear, where a pool table can be found. I was initially disappointed not to see the outstanding buffet bar. Once mentioned to the manageress, there was no problem getting her keys to open up the rear room, which was the outstanding buffet bar.
Also we were shown the upstairs function room with it's fabulous etched glass roof lights and fireplaces. The staircase leading up to the function room was painted and is believed to be solid oak. There were no ales in here, so had to get a Carlsberg. Well worth a visit to see the impressive buffet bar.
On 18th August 2013
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Best Pubs left this review about The Mountain Daisy
not a bad pub to visit
quality of drink- genraly descent pint.
friendlyness- friendly at times.
atmos phere - ok.
prices - about average.
clenliness- not bad.
toilets- decent.
food served - none.
drinks served all the usual
On 15th June 2011
- rating: 5
[User has posted 32 recommendations about 32 pubs]
View more reviews of Mountain Daisy (6)
No known official website for this pub.
- Facebook - Mountain Daisy
- CAMRA WhatPub :: Mountain Daisy - whatpub.com
- Historic Pub Interiors - pubheritage.camra.org.uk
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 18 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Child Friendly : Yes last updated 18 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Darts : Yes last updated 18 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Function Room : Yes - From review - last updated 18 August 2013 by Dave McNally
- Hot Food : No last updated 18 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Jukebox : Yes last updated 18 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Karaoke : Yes - Wednesday, Sunday - last updated 27 August 2008 by Dave McNally
- Live TV Sports : Yes last updated 18 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Micropub : No last updated 18 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Pinball : No last updated 18 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Pool Table : Yes last updated 18 August 2013 by ROB Camra
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 18 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Real Cider : No last updated 18 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
