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There are many readily available old books and articles about London drinking establishments but other cities had their notable boozers, too.

Here, for example, is a handy list from an 1815 guide to the inns and taverns of Bristol:

(In the original that text runs across a page break but we’ve stitched it together.)
The author was probably more interested in their hospitality (rooms and food) than in the drinks on offer but, still, it’s something to chew on.
Whenever we post something like this, we get asked: ‘Yeah, but how many of them are still there!?’ So, this time, we’ve checked (which took longer than we expected) and we reckon the answer is that, of the 18 taverns listed 200 hundred years ago, only five are still around and currently selling drinks.
We got most of our info from the fantastically complete Bristol’s Lost Pubs*website and from Paul Townsend’s account*on Flickr.
Because this has the makings of a historic pub crawl, too, we’ve also suggested substitute pubs for those which have gone, but you’ll have to work out your own route.


Main image: ‘The Bush Tavern, Corn Street, Bristol in the Old Coaching Days, chromolithograph by William Lewis after JH Maggs’, shamelessly nicked from Bristol Libraries Flickr account.
Bristol’s Top Taverns, 1815 from Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog - Over-thinking beer, pubs and the meaning of craft since 2007


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