Pubs and Bars / Pubs
Pub of the week: The Shakespeare
There are competing claims to be Bristol’s oldest pub.
The Shakespeare on Victoria Street has AD 1636 written not once but three times above its door and now printed on its menus as well, making it clearly the most historic in town if that date can be proved, which is doubtful.
Whatever the true origins of this pub, it is certainly centuries-old and feels it as well.
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Thick wooden beams everywhere keep this ancient structure standing and it has a frontage you could see on history text books teaching about the decades leading up to the English Civil War.
Reopened by Dave Shaw, the former landlord of The Portwall, the pub is still dripping in history. Just now it has a fresh lick of paint and newly upholstered bar stools.
It remains a proper pub, putting the mind of prolific Bristol Post letter writer RL Smith at rest who had expressed his fears that it would be turned into “a stylish wine bar”.
Ales on tap when I visited St Austell Tribute, Courage Directors, Wells Bombardier and Butcombe Bitter, with ciders Symonds and Strongbow Original.
If you’re feeling flush, there are also bottles of Champagne on display between the front and back bars, Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut – or there is Prosecco and a dozen different wines by the glass.
The food menu is traditional pub grub with the likes of home cooked ham with two eggs and chips (£7.50), beef chilli (£6.95) and a jacket potatoes, paninis and baps.
One former regular came in for the first time since the refurbishment when I was visiting on Thursday afternoon and couldn’t believe they had wine now served not just in tiny bottles.
What regulars of the Shakespeare in the mid-seventeenth century would make of the halloumi, falafel or tagliatelli would be intriguing to find out.
But here’s hoping that away from unheard of food, they would still recognise this most historic of Bristol pubs.
The Shakespeare, 78 Victoria Street, Bristol, BS1 6DR
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