Blog Tracker
07-01-2024, 11:30
Visit the Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog site (https://boakandbailey.com/2024/01/our-2023-bristol-pub-visits/)
At the start of 2023 we added a new column to our pub visits spreadsheet having reflected on changes in our pub going habits.
Those changes were partly due to the disruption caused by COVID-19 but were also a result of moving to another part of Bristol.
The new column was about gathering data on our behaviour within a given year.
We shared some initial stats in January after one month of data (https://boakandbailey.com/2023/02/pub-statistics-for-january-2023/) but now we’ve got a full 12 months to play with.
Firstly a caveat; our spreadsheet only captures our visits to Bristol pubs. Tempting as ‘every pub in London’ might be, we’re not the people to tackle that particular challenge.
And although we have started logging visits to taprooms we’re a bit lazier about it and don’t really trust our own numbers to the same degree.
So, we’re happy that the general shape of this data is correct, even if there might be a few inaccuracies or omissions.
The big numbersIn total we logged 125 pub visits in Bristol, across 54 different pubs.
Within this list a mere 19 were new to us, but it was enough to get us over the 300 mark (https://boakandbailey.com/2023/12/weve-been-to-300-bristol-pubs-at-last/) on our ‘every pub in Bristol’ mission.
We think it’s clear that, these days, there is not any one pub that we really regard as our favourite or our local, now that we’ve moved an hour away from The Drapers Arms.*
The Swan with Two Necks, The King’s Head and The Barley Mow (St Phillips) are our most visited pubs, and are all within a 20 to 25 minute walk.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/old_stillage.jpgSort-of our local, but notOf the pubs that are closer to us, The Old Stillage is probably the one we’d be most tempted to refer to as ‘our local’.
But with only 5 over the course of the year it’s not exactly a regular haunt.
In fact, we visited The Drapers, way across town, as often as The Old Stillage, less than 10 minutes from our house.
That’s partly because The Old Stillage a totally different pub on Friday and Saturday night (loud DJs, excitable young people) than the rest of the week (murmuring jukebox, mixed crowd).
It’s also about 5% too grungy and hippyish for Ray – one of the slight tensions between us when it comes to judging pubs.
Some 2024 resolutionsWe made an effort this year to revisit a lot of pubs from our Bristol Pub Guide (https://boakandbailey.com/) to check that our descriptions were up to date. But there are a few contenders to which we didn’t make it, and we really must fix that in 2024.
We’ll try to get better at logging taprooms this year too. We do find ourselves at Lost & Grounded on a fairly regular basis, for example, so we need to stop pretending we’re “not taproom people”.
We’d also love to polish off the rest of the pubs in the city, getting up to 350 or whatever it is.
Jess has some crawls planned to scoop up a few key clusters but, otherwise, we just need to get on the bus and get out to those suburbs, even if it’s just to tick one mediocre Greene King pub.
The data
Pub Name
Address
2023 Visits
Swan with Two Necks
St Philips
12
Kings Head
Victoria Street
10
Barley Mow
Barton Rd
7
Old Fish Market
Baldwin St
6
Hare on the Hill
Dove Street
6
Llandoger Trow
King Street
6
Drapers Arms
Gloucester Rd
5
Old Duke
King Street
5
Old Stillage
Church Road
5
Zero Degrees
Colston Street
4
Merchants Arms
Merchants Rd
3
Small Bar
King Street
3
Highbury Vaults
St Michael’s Hill
3
Good Measure
Chandos Road
3
Langton
Langton Court Road
3
Grain Barge
On the water at Hotwells
2
Red Monkey (former Chums)
Chandos Rd
2
Ostrich Inn
Redcliffe
2
The Annexe
Nevil Road
2
Fishponds Tap
Fishponds Road
2
Eldon House
Cliftonwood
1
Volunteer Tavern
St Judes
1
Strawberry Thief
Bread St
1
Prince of Wales
Gloucester Road
1
Orchard
Hanover Place, Spike Island
1
Stag and Hounds
Old Market
1
Open Arms (former Colston Arms)
St Michael’s Hill
1
Rose of Denmark
Hotwell Rd
1
Royal Naval Volunteer
King Street
1
Old Bookshop
North Street
1
The Shakespeare
Prince Street
1
Post Office Tavern
Westbury on Trym
1
Hatchet Inn
Frogmore Street
1
Oxford
Oxford Street, Totterdown
1
No. 1 Harbourside
Harbourside
1
Bulldog
Filton Avenue
1
Green House
The Centre / Park Street
1
Rose and Crown
Two Mile Hill Road
1
Bear & Rugged Staff
Southmead
1
Treble Chance
Southmead
1
Rising Sun
Ashton Gate
1
Good Intent
Broomhill
1
Grapevine (Brasserie)
Mangotsfield
1
Red Lion
Mangotsfield
1
Lamb Inn
Mangotsfield
1
Foresters
Downend
1
Forge and Fern
Staple Hill
1
Pied Horse
Summerhill Road
1
Star
Hanham Road
1
Kings Head
Kingswood High Street
1
Kingswood Colliers
Kingswood High Street
1
Black Horse
Kingswood High Street
1
To the Moon
Midland Road
1
Old Castle Green
Gloucester Lane, Old Market
1
Life in numbers: our 2023 Bristol pub visits (https://boakandbailey.com/2024/01/our-2023-bristol-pub-visits/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)
More... (https://boakandbailey.com/2024/01/our-2023-bristol-pub-visits/)
At the start of 2023 we added a new column to our pub visits spreadsheet having reflected on changes in our pub going habits.
Those changes were partly due to the disruption caused by COVID-19 but were also a result of moving to another part of Bristol.
The new column was about gathering data on our behaviour within a given year.
We shared some initial stats in January after one month of data (https://boakandbailey.com/2023/02/pub-statistics-for-january-2023/) but now we’ve got a full 12 months to play with.
Firstly a caveat; our spreadsheet only captures our visits to Bristol pubs. Tempting as ‘every pub in London’ might be, we’re not the people to tackle that particular challenge.
And although we have started logging visits to taprooms we’re a bit lazier about it and don’t really trust our own numbers to the same degree.
So, we’re happy that the general shape of this data is correct, even if there might be a few inaccuracies or omissions.
The big numbersIn total we logged 125 pub visits in Bristol, across 54 different pubs.
Within this list a mere 19 were new to us, but it was enough to get us over the 300 mark (https://boakandbailey.com/2023/12/weve-been-to-300-bristol-pubs-at-last/) on our ‘every pub in Bristol’ mission.
We think it’s clear that, these days, there is not any one pub that we really regard as our favourite or our local, now that we’ve moved an hour away from The Drapers Arms.*
The Swan with Two Necks, The King’s Head and The Barley Mow (St Phillips) are our most visited pubs, and are all within a 20 to 25 minute walk.
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/old_stillage.jpgSort-of our local, but notOf the pubs that are closer to us, The Old Stillage is probably the one we’d be most tempted to refer to as ‘our local’.
But with only 5 over the course of the year it’s not exactly a regular haunt.
In fact, we visited The Drapers, way across town, as often as The Old Stillage, less than 10 minutes from our house.
That’s partly because The Old Stillage a totally different pub on Friday and Saturday night (loud DJs, excitable young people) than the rest of the week (murmuring jukebox, mixed crowd).
It’s also about 5% too grungy and hippyish for Ray – one of the slight tensions between us when it comes to judging pubs.
Some 2024 resolutionsWe made an effort this year to revisit a lot of pubs from our Bristol Pub Guide (https://boakandbailey.com/) to check that our descriptions were up to date. But there are a few contenders to which we didn’t make it, and we really must fix that in 2024.
We’ll try to get better at logging taprooms this year too. We do find ourselves at Lost & Grounded on a fairly regular basis, for example, so we need to stop pretending we’re “not taproom people”.
We’d also love to polish off the rest of the pubs in the city, getting up to 350 or whatever it is.
Jess has some crawls planned to scoop up a few key clusters but, otherwise, we just need to get on the bus and get out to those suburbs, even if it’s just to tick one mediocre Greene King pub.
The data
Pub Name
Address
2023 Visits
Swan with Two Necks
St Philips
12
Kings Head
Victoria Street
10
Barley Mow
Barton Rd
7
Old Fish Market
Baldwin St
6
Hare on the Hill
Dove Street
6
Llandoger Trow
King Street
6
Drapers Arms
Gloucester Rd
5
Old Duke
King Street
5
Old Stillage
Church Road
5
Zero Degrees
Colston Street
4
Merchants Arms
Merchants Rd
3
Small Bar
King Street
3
Highbury Vaults
St Michael’s Hill
3
Good Measure
Chandos Road
3
Langton
Langton Court Road
3
Grain Barge
On the water at Hotwells
2
Red Monkey (former Chums)
Chandos Rd
2
Ostrich Inn
Redcliffe
2
The Annexe
Nevil Road
2
Fishponds Tap
Fishponds Road
2
Eldon House
Cliftonwood
1
Volunteer Tavern
St Judes
1
Strawberry Thief
Bread St
1
Prince of Wales
Gloucester Road
1
Orchard
Hanover Place, Spike Island
1
Stag and Hounds
Old Market
1
Open Arms (former Colston Arms)
St Michael’s Hill
1
Rose of Denmark
Hotwell Rd
1
Royal Naval Volunteer
King Street
1
Old Bookshop
North Street
1
The Shakespeare
Prince Street
1
Post Office Tavern
Westbury on Trym
1
Hatchet Inn
Frogmore Street
1
Oxford
Oxford Street, Totterdown
1
No. 1 Harbourside
Harbourside
1
Bulldog
Filton Avenue
1
Green House
The Centre / Park Street
1
Rose and Crown
Two Mile Hill Road
1
Bear & Rugged Staff
Southmead
1
Treble Chance
Southmead
1
Rising Sun
Ashton Gate
1
Good Intent
Broomhill
1
Grapevine (Brasserie)
Mangotsfield
1
Red Lion
Mangotsfield
1
Lamb Inn
Mangotsfield
1
Foresters
Downend
1
Forge and Fern
Staple Hill
1
Pied Horse
Summerhill Road
1
Star
Hanham Road
1
Kings Head
Kingswood High Street
1
Kingswood Colliers
Kingswood High Street
1
Black Horse
Kingswood High Street
1
To the Moon
Midland Road
1
Old Castle Green
Gloucester Lane, Old Market
1
Life in numbers: our 2023 Bristol pub visits (https://boakandbailey.com/2024/01/our-2023-bristol-pub-visits/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)
More... (https://boakandbailey.com/2024/01/our-2023-bristol-pub-visits/)