Pubs and Bars / Pub of the Week
Pub of the Week: The Miner’s Arms
The first thing you notice on pushing open the green wooden door to The Miner’s Arms is that it smells like a proper pub – that malty smell of a cellar with real hand-pulls.
From the working fireplace with its sooty brick surround, to the decorated glass above the bar that spans a whole wall, it’s a step back in time to a golden age.
Ignoring the projector dangling from the ceiling and a winking fruit machine in the corner, this Dawkins pub in St Werburgh’s really is an ageless place.
In the back room, a pair of old friends keep score as they play a swift round of pool. As the main bar room starts to fill up on a recent weekday evening, the barman lights a fire in the grate.
A local propping up the bar in work clothes laments falling off the dry January wagon to a ribbing from his mates.
They order pints of cold lager and real ale from the seven hand-pulls, and contemplate something stronger from the massive choice of wines and spirits displayed along the back wall.
The old pump clips of IPAs past decorate the green-painted girders that prop up the ceiling; years of history locked in those colourful badges.
A woman with a friendly dog, both of them bundled up in coats against the January cold, comes in and waits to be served underneath a chalkboard that declares dogs and babies to be welcome (as long as they refrain from foul language, heavy petting and drugs).
There’ll be nothing of the sort tonight, as the barman picks a jar of dog treats from the back and the mutt sits obediently on the floor, waiting for the next one.
Happy chatter bounces off the old wooden floors and a man returns his empty pint glass to the bar before heading off: equally well-trained.
The Miner’s Arms, 136 Mina Road, St Werburgh’s, Bristol, BS2 9YQ
0117 907 9874
www.facebook.com/theminersarms
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