The Mrs and I decided to drink around Durham for my birthday weekend in late July as I knew people who had been and thought it was a nice place. Every ‘nice place’ has a few real ale pubs as we all know! Another historic cathedral city to drink around, following on quite nicely from our Lincoln tour in May. As always the trusty Good Beer Guide App told us the best venues in which to find real ale and research was done beforehand to sift out the best of those. For no matter how hardened a drinker you are, it is not possible to visit every Good Beer Guide (GBG) pub in a city in one night. And while we wanted to make sure we had covered Durham properly we were mindful that a crawl around Newcastle was on the agenda the very next day! We had booked a cheap room at a Premier Inn to the North East of the city centre, and rode the park & ride bus into the centre to begin our exploration.
We began the night in The Bishops Mill a Wetherspoons within a food court, itself part of the Gala Theatre development. This is not currently in the GBG but we knew the food would be cheap and familiar along with local beer for a good price. It is not often you see a purpose built Wetherspoons as they generally like to seek out buildings with a bit of history, which traditionally have never been pubs before. Despite this they had acknowledged the locality inside with cathedral like wooden panels and an impressive collage of photos along one wall. Very spacious inside with ample seating outside at the front, which is where most of the punters were gathered. I’ve had a Mordue beer before at Bradford Beer Festival, but this one was called Workie Ticket (4.5%). We do not normally go for the darker ales but as it was the 1997 Champion Beer of Britain, one of many accolades it has won over the years, it could not in good conscience be ignored. Agreeably malty and noticeably sweet, it was a pleasant surprise that I would highly recommend to try if you ever come across it.
Our first GBG pub was only around the corner and so the real ale crawl began in earnest at the John Duck, a deceptively small pub as viewed from the road. However once inside it widens the deeper in you go until you reach a section of overhanging decking at the back, giving the appearance of a tree house as the pub backs onto a hill. It was here we sat under a canopy of leaves after we had purchased our drinks from the well stocked bar. 10 hand pumps dispensing 2 ciders and 8 beers one of which was EPA by Marston’s to my slight disappointment. Not actually a bad beer in all fairness, but one that is usually found as a token gesture in food focused pubs, and probably brewed for that purpose. The building itself clearly dates back a long way but the interior is contemporary with a rustic edge; beer themed pictures adorn the walls and there are plenty of cosy corners to snuggle into. It wasn’t at all busy but then it was still pretty early for a Friday night and I could easily imagine it being a popular venue later on. We both had a pint of the exclusively brewed John Duck (3.9%) by Durham Brewery, which was pleasant enough on the palate and a nice easy start to the nights drinking.
Next we headed into the centre of Durham proper to find our second real ale pub of the evening. One of the most impressive aspects of the Market is its location in the intrinsically Victorian square, next to the well preserved indoor Victorian market. Again this pub is larger than it looks, even if it does not open up in quite the same manner as the John Duck. There are 6 hand pumps on the short bar with beers from Maxim, Idle and Mordue. The wooden floor and raised rear area makes it slightly reminiscent of Old Number 7, Acorn’s pub in Barnsley. It was at the back we sat, picking a table where I was able to look down to the front of the pub. The back section is wider that the main part and it seems to be geared towards food serving. There are two windows that look down into the indoor market that expands behind the pub, and a TV on the wall was showing coverage of the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games. It was not busy when we were there at about 7pm but the locals were certainly a lively enough bunch, whilst feeding the juke box with coins! I had a pint of Idle Tongue (4.3% with a wheaty aftertaste) from Idle and the Mrs had a pint of Maxim’s excellent Swedish Blonde (4.1%)
The Shakespeare Tavern is to be found up from the market square on a picturesque side street that leads towards the castle and the cathedral. A quaint boozer it is roughly the size of two shoe boxes strung together, which only serves to add to its charm. The bar is in the front room, with a handful of tables clustered around it, and dispenses 5 beers. Those on offer included Fullers London Pride, Jennings Cumberland Ale, Caledonian’s Deuchars (which proved to be quite popular in that part of the country) and two guest ales. We opted for a pint each of the Olympic special Le Peloton from Brains which must have travelled some way as they are a Welsh brewery. We sat in the back room, in the first section after a group of students had moved on. Classic pub decor was once again the order of the day with wooden floors and bench seating around the edges. It was fairly quiet when we entered but by 8:15 it had started to pick up a bit. We were expecting it to be reasonably quiet, assuming that a lot of people would be watching the opening ceremony.
However the next pub we visited, which was across the river, was definitely busy, the busiest of the whole evening in fact. The Half Moon Inn was the largest establishment we had come across by that point, with a beer garden stretching down to the river side. The inside has two levels with a lower lounge type area at the back and a horseshoe shaped bar in the middle which follows the drop down to the rear. You have to walk all the way around the bar to the back to see the full beer range from the four hand pumps. But at least the regulars Bass and EPA are the ones out of sight as you walk in, with two rotating guest ales occupying the prime spot at the front. We had White Gold (4.0%) from Durham Brewery and seeing as there was little available space inside and it was a nice evening, we made our way outside. The beer garden had an almost street like quality to it with its cobbled floor and flanking outhouses. There’s a sign asking customers to return glasses to the bar and amazingly most people actually were doing just that. The clientele was mixed, pretty much split down the middle between older and younger punters. The Half Moon certainly made us feel like the night had got going a bit more.
The next place we intended to visit was a little further out, towards the University, but it’s well worth a visit. The Victoria is a wonderfully historic ale pub that retains many of its original features. Occupying a triangular corner position with the bar in the middle which reaches into each of the three rooms that surround, it. All of which pretty much their own doors from the outside, as per the original design. There is an abundance of colonial pictures, maps and general Victorian memorabilia everywhere, adding to the sense that you’re in a completely different time. A proper traditional boozer with no trappings of the modern pub, such as juke boxes, music or pool tables, which is always refreshing. Indeed I was so distracted by its uniqueness that I failed to note how many hand pumps it has. We both drank Apollo (4.0%) from Durham Brewery, a pint for me and a half for the Lady. 
Our penultimate establishment was The Court Inn, which was a reasonably short walk from The Victoria. Standing prominently on a corner spot just off the main road it had more of a suburban feel to it than any of the pubs we had visited so far. But it is likely to be that factor that accounts for the surprisingly poor beer choice on the bar, with only 2 hand pumps that I could see. The clientele in erred towards middle aged drinkers and probably caters for those who don’t want to head into the city. It was quiet but the Olympic Ceremony was showing on a wall mounted TV, getting most people’s attention. Despite the disappointing beer choice it is a nice pub and I can see why it gets voted into the GBG by the locals. We had a pint and a half of Durham Guzzler (4.0%) from Wylam Brewery.
Our last stop was The Dun Cow, again quite a short walk from the last place. This also had a very local feel about it but it was much livelier than The Court, indeed we did well to get a seat in the small front room. The back room is much larger but was full and everybody seemed to know each other but we might have stumbled into some kind of get together. At any rate, you need to order in the front room as that’s where you can see the three hand pumps. I went for Castle Eden Ale (4.2%) which is now brewed by Cameron’s, a brewery you can occasionally see in Sheffield. The Mrs opted for Golden Pippin (3.9%) from Copper Dragon, an old favourite that is good to fall back on. There was a friendly atmosphere and the whole place had a cosy feel about it, even if the toilets were outside!
Apologies for the descriptions getting shorter towards the end but as you may have worked out much ale had been consumed by the end! Durham is a lovely city, we had a good walk round the next day, and the pubs there have much to offer in the way of history, atmosphere and local beers. Durham Brewery is the dominant brewery and we had a few of theirs over the course of the night, all of which we found pleasing. See the Newcastle write up for what we go up to the following night!
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