Quote Originally Posted by oldboots View Post
I think most of the Northern contingent will have done Derby a few times so we'll have no problem with pubs outside the ring road, there are of course a few don't miss pubs in the centre for those new to the city The Brunswick Inn and The Alexandra Hotel amongst them. These are of course the start/finish pubs due to their location.

My favourites would be the two above plus,Furnace Inn, The Flower Pot, Exeter Arms, Silk Mill Ale & Cider House.

Remarkably I've never been in the The Babington Arms (JD Wetherspoon) and a few others that come recommended are:

Falstaff Tavern
Greyhound Inn
The Peacock Inn
The Smithfield
The Tap
Little Chester Ale House A micropub in the Little Chester area but there's also Coach & Horses nearby if we wanted a shift system.

Soupy and myself recorded a visit in 2009 here, that thread has a few other ideas especially from Hopwas (I wonder how he's getting on).
Interesting reading yours and Soup Dragon's proto-crawl. I agree with you about the start and finish points - this is one crawl where the Spoons is too far from the station to make a convenient meeting place. And the Brunswick opens at 11 anyway, so who needs Spoons?

The Little Chester micro is perhaps a little too far out - especially with the Coach & Horses acting as a kind of substitutes bench. It's half a mile from the Peacock and then another half mile to the Furnace afterwards.

Suggested route:

Brunswick (11 until 11:45ish)
Smithfield (opens at 12)
Exeter (wild card: Tap)
Peacock
Furnace
Five Lamps (wild card: Horse & Groom)
Mr Grundy's (wild card: Greyhound)
Golden Eagle (if thirsty on the way to the next pub!)
Flower Pot
Dolphin (wild card: Silk Mill)
Babington Spoons
Alexandra

That's 12 plus wild cards, so possibly needs a little trimming, or some pubs relegating to wild card status. I've left out Falstaff and Bell & Castle from my original suggestion, as too far away from the others.

What think you?