Derbyshire pub guide: The Brunswick Inn, Derby

By Adrian Tierney-Jones in Derbyshire Published: 12:00PM GMT twenty-six February 2010

Comments 1 |

The Brunswick Inn, Derby

In the wood-panelled club of the Brunswick Inn, warmed by a intense spark fire, a integrate are deliberating their crossword over a pint and a potion of chardonnay. "It can"t be "ear"," says the woman. Her companion, an owlish-looking man in spectacles, pauses. "Why not?" Then he looks at his crossword again. "Oh, I see." Disappointment fleetingly appears on his face prior to he takes a sip from his glass, and the universe is right again. This is drink hall hold up in the learned traditions of Inspector Morse, who would have desired this gem of a Derby landmark.

Built in 1842, and scarcely pulled down in the Eighties, the Brunswick is a red brick, triangular made construction at the finish of a row of former railway workers" cottages. The hire is a integrate of mins away, that creates it really accessible if you have time to kill in between trains.

Derbyshire drink hall guide: Lantern Pike Inn, High Peak Derbyshire Pub Guide: The Jug and Glass, Lea Derbyshire Pub Guide: The Alexandra Hotel, Derby Nottinghamshire Pub Guide: The Canalhouse in Nottingham Nottinghamshire Pub Guide: The Test Match, West Bridgford, Nottingham UK Pub Guide: The Bridge Inn in Dulverton, Somerset

The Brunswick is a undoubted warren: here a glass-fronted snug, there a lounge, here a family parlour. The main club is open and welcoming, with stools and classical drink hall tables and a integrate of prolonged leather-topped benches. A row of drink bottles (some vintage, a little new) marches self-importantly opposite a prolonged edge on top of the room.

They decoction their own drink here, with the pack on show at the finish of the stone-flagged corridor. When I incited up late on a snow white afternoon, locals were already asking for pints of such home-brewed delights as the bittersweet and lovely Triple Hop or the dim and coffee-like Rockin" Johnny"s Derby Pride. There were fourteen genuine ales on offer, half of them brewed on the premises. Beer nirvana.

Food is usually served at lunchtime. It"s simple stuff: chilli and chips (�3.50) and assorted sandwiches. But I"m told the lamb and packet cake with gravy, crush and peas (�5.50) is delicious. This half-day shutting proceed to dining doesn"t meant that food is unimportant. On the wall, a notice advertises a food and drink night, with the combined captivate of the coming of a internal poet, who additionally doubles as the town"s "Beer King".

As the cooking shows, this classical Victorian drink hall has astonishing depths. I would not be endangered for a impulse if my sight were behind subsequent time I shift at Derby.

The Brunswick Inn, 1 Railway Terrace, Derby (01332 290677)Find some-more drink hall reviews with the UK Pub Guide