THE best pubs in the UK have been named – could one of them be your local?
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has announced the finalists in its prestigious Pub of the Year Awards, whittling the list down to just four outstanding businesses.
The Pelican Inn in Gloucester is a Grade II-listed family-run pub dating back to 1679[/caption]
The Volunteer Arms in Musselburgh has a Victorian-era gantry inside topped with old cask barrels[/caption]
One of them will be officially crowned Pub of the Year in January.
The pubs in the running are:
- The Blackfriars Tavern, Great Yarmouth
- The Pelican Inn, Gloucester
- The Tamworth Tap, Tamworth
- The Volunteer Arms (Staggs), Musselburgh
The awards aim to celebrate the best boozers in the UK, with the haunts judged on atmosphere, décor and quality cask beer, real cider and perry.
CAMRA previously announced 16 finalists before out of thousands of entries.
You can see the top 16 pubs in the map and table above.
Two of the finalists, The Tamworth Tap and The Volunteer Arms, are previous winners of CAMRA’s Pub of the Year.
The Blackfriars Tavern was also awarded CAMRA’s Cider and Perry Pub of the Year just weeks ago.
The pub sits next to the historical 13th century town walls in Great Yarmouth.
It focuses on East Anglian-produced cask ales, as well as real ciders and perries.
It has been a dramatic few years for the pub, which first landed on the high street in 1865 and but closed in 2008.
It then changed hands in 2011, before closing during the pandemic and finally reopening in 2021.
The Pelican Inn dates back to 1679 and is popular with cyclists, cathedral visitors and local Gloucester rugby fans.
The Grade-II listed family-run pub has up to 10 cask beers, 12 ciders and six craft kegs on at all times.
It’s also been featured in the Good Beer Guide for more than a decade.
The Tamworth Tap previously won Pub of the Year in both 2022 and 2023.
It also won Best Pub for Beer at the Great British Pub Awards last year.
Its Tudor building and historic courtyard beer terrace offer striking views of Tamworth’s Norman Castle.
The business has been praised for not only its booze but its efforts to bring the local community together.
The Tamworth Tap in Tamworth has won Pub of the Year twice before at CAMRA’s awards[/caption]
The Blackfriars Tavern in Great Yarmouth sells cask ales produced in East Anglia[/caption]
Meanwhile The Volunteer Arms in Musselburgh has been run by the same family for more than 160 years.
It’s got a Victorian era gantry inside, which is now topped with old spirit cask barrels.
Plus, it has a big range of regularly changing cask beers.
It previously won CAMRA’s Pub of the Year award in 1998 and reached the top four in 2018.
Andrea Briers, CAMRA’s Pub of the Year coordinator, said the awards are “always a hard-fought and close competition with judges having an incredibly difficult job whittling them down to just four”.
“They are shining examples of what makes our pubs so incredibly special, vital to our communities and providing a wonderful welcome to all.”
He also took the opportunity to warn about the hardships facing pubs at the moment.
“Every year we see pubs facing new pressures and to continue to thrive in the face of rising costs and other issues is humbling to see,” he said.
“We are calling on the Chancellor to give pubs a fair deal in the Autumn Budget, so they can keep serving their communities for many years to come.”
CAMRA has been campaigning for Chancellor Rachel Reeves to give pubs specific support, including cutting VAT, business rates and National Insurance contributions.
Government figures show 209 pubs were shut in the first half of the year.
That brings the total number of pubs calling a permanent last orders in the past five years to 2,283.
