Pubs and Bars / Pub of the Week
Pub of the Week: The Knowle
“Jack flush, jack flush!” comes the shout from a table of five friends playing cards on a small circular table underneath an antique clock.
At the bar, a barmaid with a pink beehive and tattoos on her arm Amy Winehouse would have been proud of offers a taster to a local with paint-splattered trousers.
“I don’t know how much I’m meant to give out,” she says with a chuckle as she hands him a generously filled tumbler that would pass for an order all by itself in some of Bristol’s trendiest craft beer bars.
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“That’s more than enough,” comes the reply as the punter decides to try a pint of Harvest Pale from Nottingham’s Castle Rock brewery.
Soon after clocking off time on a recent Friday night, The Knowle was already full of excited chatter, from an elderly couple enjoying a quiet drink in one corner of the U-shaped room to a packed table of young friends in the opposite half of the pub, with three generations of the same family also popping in for a visit.
The Knowle is a handsome Victorian boozer standing proudly at the heart of its community, nestled among residential streets a stone’s throw from the water tower that can be seen from the other side of town.
Until recently, the landlord here was former Bristol City favourite Paul Cheesley, who scored 20 goals in 61 starts for the Robins before injury curtailed a promising career.
It’s now a pub in the same family as The Grace on Gloucester Road and The Greenbank in Easton, joining an extended family that also includes Zazu’s Kitchen in Bishopston and Bedminster and The Bear in Bath. (Full disclosure: Bristol24/7 consultant publisher Dougal Templeton is a co-owner of these businesses)
A large purple banquette matches a shade of Farrow & Ball on some of the walls. There are fresh flowers on each table, and framed artwork which includes cigarette cards of bicycles, a dissection of the Wills Tower, and a fascinating old GWR map with stations including Brislington, Hotwells and Flax Bourton.
Sunday lunches are already doing a brisk trade here, and if we get the Indian summer promised they can be enjoyed in the refurbished suntrap back garden patio.
Extract Coffee roasted in St Werburgh’s is in the hopper on one side of the bar, but lager is the drink of choice here on Friday night for most of the customers from a selection which includes Amstel, Heineken and Moretti; as well as ciders Symonds and Strongbow cloudy apple; and ales including Adnams Ghost Ship and Murphy’s stout.
“Yaaay!” comes the shout from the card table. The game looks set to carry on long after the sun sets on this pub once again at the heart of its community.
The Knowle, Leighton Road, Knowle, Bristol, BS4 2LL
0117 971 6351
Photos by Emma Woodward
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