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Picture of Albion Brewery Bar
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Submitted on Wednesday, 12th April 2017
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Albion Brewery Bar, Northampton

Pub added by Bucking Fastard
54 Kingswell Street
Northampton
NN1 1PR
Correct details

Served areas

Reviews of Albion Brewery Bar (Average Rating: 8 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Pub SignMan left this review about Albion Brewery Bar

This is an excellent brewery bar close to the town centre and easily reached from the train station, operated by the latest incarnation of the Phipps Brewery. They’ve made an excellent choice of location for their new brewery and bar, occupying part of the old Ratliffe & Jeffrey's Albion Brewery - a fantastic Victorian building which lends itself perfectly to Phipps’ latest operation. The bar has a bit of a drinking hall feel to it, thanks to the spacious main room with its high gabled ceiling, raised bare boarded seating area to the front and concrete floored bar area at the back. You enter via a nice corridor with display cabinets full of old Phipps memorabilia on the walls, emerging into a characterful lobby with an amazing leaded stained glass window on the rear feature wall. Turning through the door to the left, you enter the main room, with the servery along the back wall. The bar has a nice dark wood counter and grand bar back with a nice Phipps Brewery endpiece and etched glass across the top, all of which has apparently been salvaged from former Phipps pubs, as was much of the furniture and decor. Pew and chair seating fill most of the room, with a good amount of standing room left in the area directly opposite the bar, despite the place being considerably quieter than a lot of the town’s other well regarded ale houses on this Friday evening visit. The room has been fitted with plenty of attractive dark wood panels, leaded and stained glass windows and other such period features, whilst the decor includes some amazing old etched glass mirrors, plenty of old Phipps memorabilia including a few great pub signs, and some modern blackboards that in no way detract from the pub’s overall appearance. A great 60’s soundtrack was playing away in the background and on my way out, I spotted one of those table skittles games that seem to be popular in this part of the country.
The brewery can be viewed through some large windows to the left of the bar, so it was appropriate that a good selection of Phipps ales occupied the handpulls, with options on this visit comprising Single Hop Ernest, Ipa, Bison, Gold Star, Black Star, one other that I failed to note down and one that had just gone off. I tried the Single hop Ernest, which was a decent enough brew served to me by a very friendly barmaid who had a little chat with most customers on arrival.
I really liked this place, which I thought was a great restoration of a beautiful old brewery building and a great way to keep the Phipps name going. It was a shame to see the pub much quieter than the likes of the nearby Malt Shovel and Pomfret Arms, as I would say this isn’t too far behind them in the pecking order and should be regarded as a must-visit for anyone crawling around Northampton.

On 29th December 2022 - rating: 8
[User has posted 3093 recommendations about 3093 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Danny O'Revey left this review about Albion Brewery Bar

Almost cinema like inside, a nice old building and opened up room . Brewery tap, but the beer is too warm for my personal taste. Nice place though

On 20th October 2019 - rating: 7
[User has posted 1456 recommendations about 1434 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Real Ale Ray left this review about Albion Brewery Bar

Phipps brewery goes back to 1864, when the Phipps brothers from Burton on Trent started brewing in Northampton. The last pint of Phipps beers came to a halt in 1968 under Watney's and was only available in bottles up until 1972. In recent years a few brewers books survived, pulled from skips and taken home as souvenirs. Grainstore Brewery brewed their beers up until 2013, until capacity was strained to meet demand.
Funds were raised by the Phipps and Radcliffe family and in 2014 they bought back and restored the Albion Brewery. Since then more of their heritage brews have returned. There were eight handpumps across the bar on our visit, serving six from Phipps, along with one guest beer and one cider. We found the staff to be very friendly and welcoming and the beers we tried were exceptional, we especially liked the Gold Star and the IPA. The pub had plenty of space and you get a good view of the brewery through the glass partition doors along the left hand side of the bar. The bar area looked to be reclaimed as it was traditional in style and constructed from mahogany. Well worth a visit to this brewery tap if you're in the area.

On 11th February 2019 - rating: 8
[User has posted 3368 recommendations about 3368 pubs]


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Pub location see interactive map of local area
Map location corrected by Bucking Fastard
Northampton, 0.55 miles, 10 min walk (show)
Long Buckby, 10.79 miles, 3 hr 28 min walk (show)
Wellingborough, 12.14 miles, 3 hr 54 min walk (show)
Latest updates View all updates for Albion Brewery Bar, Northampton
29th Dec 2022, 15:02
Review submitted by Pub SignMan
 
20th Oct 2019, 16:07
Review submitted by Danny O'Revey

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.

  • Accommodation : No last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Bar Billiards : Yes - plus Northants skittles - last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Beer Garden : No last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • CAMRA Discount : Yes - 30p per pint - last updated 21 March 2023 by ROB Camra
  • Car Park : No last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Child Friendly : Yes last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Darts : No last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Dog Friendly : Yes last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Function Room : Yes last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Hot Food : Yes - Every other Thursday - last updated 29 December 2022 by Pub SignMan
  • Jukebox : No last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Karaoke : No last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Live Music : Yes last updated 09 April 2016 by Aqualung .
  • Live TV Sports : No last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Micropub : No last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Pinball : No last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Pool Table : No last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Real Ale : Yes last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Real Cider : Yes last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
  • Wheelchair Access : Yes last updated 09 April 2016 by Aqualung .
  • WiFi : Yes last updated 13 August 2016 by Quinno _
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