Pubs and Bars / Pubs
Pub of the week: Cotham Porter Stores
The story goes that after the Beatles played at the Colston Hall on Friday, November 15, 1963, the fab four walked to the Cotham Porter Stores for a post-gig pint.
After a few ciders, long the speciality here, the artistically-minded John Lennon found himself a tin of blackboard paint and drew this bucolic country scene:
The artwork that may or may not be by a half cut on cider Lennon is protected in the newly reopened Cotham Porter Stores behind a sheet of perspex, rather like a Banksy on nearby Thomas Street North.
is needed now More than ever
And it’s not the only talking point in a pub that for me I always associated with its horrendous outside toilets.
They remain, still under corrugated plastic sheeting, although your life is no longer in danger from airbourne diseases.
Wickwar are the new custodians here, their third in Bristol alongside the White Lion on the centre and the Downend Tavern in Fishponds.
Wickwar beers feature strongly with Real Stout, Bob and Coopers on tap. Stowford Press and Thatchers Traditional and Cheddar Valley are among the ciders. Wine is by the glass or bottle, with a wine of the week chalked up behind the bar.
A juke box was playing Neil Young and the Beatles, aptly, when I visited on Saturday afternoon, with the na-na-nas of Hey Jude sung with particular gusto by a red-faced gentleman by the bar.
A television has also been installed, which was showing the last Ashes game, and will screen live football and rugby.
As well as the interesting but probably apocryphal Lennon story, another intriguing decoration on the walls are architects plans of the Cotham Porter Stores from 1935 alongside proposed plans for 2014.
Cotham Porter Stores, 15 Cotham Road South, Cotham, Bristol, BS6 5TZ
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