Where's a good, easy day out from London? St Albans that's where. A mere 25 minutes from central London and in feel, a world away. All of a sudden you are in a distinctly different part of the country with an easy going feel to it and a small town atmosphere. It has a cathedral, a large market, an old town, lots of pubs and even a small Christmas market. What's not to like? Well a persistent drizzly rain that's what. Despite leaving London with a cloudless sky, we arrived to light rain, which more or less, despite the weather forecast saying a 2% chance of precipitation, gave us 100% drizzle. As Peter Kay might say "you know, the kind of rain that wets you."
I suppose too if I was a bit picky, I'd complain about the station being nowhere near the centre - and it isn't - but if it hadn't been raining that wouldn't have mattered, but as it was we were getting distinctly wet, so after a little bit of orientation we hopped into the Blacksmith's Arms for no reason other than we were passing it. It is quite a nice, friendly pub, which despite having a Cask Marque sign had by some way the poorest beer we had that day, not helped by a random looking choice of Christmas ales, plus Doom Bar. My Bath Ales Festivity was pretty underwhelming, but the pub was bustling and cheerful and the service was brisk and polite, so it was getting some things right. The food looked decent too.


We left the best of the day to the last two pubs we visited. The White Hart Tap was more or less on the way back to the station and an absolute delight, though tricky to get in as the door is in front of the bar which is only about five feet away and was blocked by a number of quite pissed lads, who good naturedly stepped aside to let us in. This is a neat little pub with Northern quality beer. I had some splendid beer from Summer Wine Brewery (Zenith) and even a bit of a chat with a couple of gents necking down vino reddo.
Our last call was near the station. The Robin Hood was better looking on the outside than in, though it was busy and friendly. It seemed to have been given a bad taste makeover recently, with inappropriate pale laminate flooring jarring considerably, as did the light blue paint on the bar. Putting these aside, the Harvey's Best was excellent and compensated in no small way for the decor. I do wonder though about the yukky pub interior, which was further diminished by harsh white overhead lighting.
This was a good day out with beer well above average, some good pubs and all noticeably friendly. Best of all in some ways was that less than an hour later, we were back in our London flat. We'll be back when it isn't raining.
The city - for that is what is is - had a homely small town feel to it. Coming as I do from a small town, I liked that about it.
I have been to St Albans before but it was a long time ago and I was driving, so no pubs that time. Thanks to all who gave me recommendations for this visit.
4 comments:
Yes, a nice place for a pub crawl and feels quite removed from London. I went in the Blacksmith's Arms when I was there in 2014 and agree that, while no beer destination, it's a pleasant, welcoming pub.
Inappropriately light pastel colours does seem to be a common trend in pub decor nowadays :-(
I'm glad you enjoyed your trip to Snorbens. There's been a beer Twitter invasion lately - first Martin Taylor, then Erlanger Nick and now you all within the space of a month! If return, there are many other quality pubs. Just a block away from the Tap is another pub run just as well by the same people - the White Lion. The museum will be opening in the town centre soon too!
Blacksmith's Arms had a refurbishment, new landlord, and change of direction in the summer. Shifted focus from cask. It probably wasn't selling enough to justify the 8-10 previously on, but have a feeling the new regime isn't really interested in what's left. Been underwhelmed with the condition on couple of visits since.
Think you'd have liked The Mermaid, a couple of hundred yards away along Hatfield Road, more.
I thought it was obligatory on a trip to St Albans to pay a visit to Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, it and the Boot are about the only two pubs I think I ever seem to visit every time I go. And personally whilst the building is interesting, I didnt rate the Water Barn as anything other than a standard wetherspoons
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