IT’S one of the most popular and sought-after small towns in the South East – with a Roman history, vibrant high street and just 22-minute train routes into central London.
But St Albans has another claim to fame: it is arguably the best town for pubs in Britain.
Ye Olde Fighting Cocks claims to be one of oldest pubs in the UK[/caption]
Most towns are lucky to have one or two decent pubs but St Albans has dozens of them.
Some even say it has the most pubs of any town in the country too – though this depends on what you count as a pub and how you classify the town’s limits.
But however you judge it, there are around 55 pubs for a population of nearly 90,000 which is not a bad count – working out at to pub for every 1,600 or so St Albanians.
It also has what claims to be the oldest pub in the country – though this is an honour which has been disputed for longer than many of its rivals have been open.
Ye Olde Fighting Cocks claims to have been around since 793AD, which, if true, would mean it could have served beer to Alfred the Great when he was kicking back after defeating some Vikings.
You get a sense of just how many pubs there are in St Albans when you note there are both a Peacock and a Peahen – and a Lower Red Lion and so presumably there was once an Upper Red Lion too.
And given that the town is relatively compact, this makes it the ideal destination for a pub crawl – the chance to check out a good number of the best pubs in town in the space of one afternoon or evening.
So perfect is it for this purpose that it has been given (by me, after several pints) the nickname ‘St Crawlbans’.
Yes other towns and cities are perhaps better known for this: there’s Tenby and The Mumbles in South Wales, where pub crawls have been held for decades, often involving stag or hen parties.
Or there’s the Otley Run in Leeds, in which students don fancy dress and visit every boozer along the three mile stretch between the city centre and Headingley.
But none of these can offer the same quality of pubs as this smaller alternative in commuter belt Hertfordshire.
It’s no coincidence that in his new book Historic Pub Crawls in England – which contains 11 suggestions nationally – author Thomas J Vosper begins with a beery walk around St Albans.
But rather than follow his suggestions, having drunk in the town a few times, and having a few ideas about which I wanted to try, we created our own crawl route for our recent visit.
This started with The Garibaldi, a pretty backstreets Fuller’s that’s noticeably well run before moving on for a quick on in each of the nearby namealike pair, The White Hart Tap and the White Lion, both rather good.
If the landlady at The Garibaldi was friendly this was nothing to the welcome we received at the marvellous and award-winning Robin Hood.
There we got talking to the veteran owner who then insisted on giving us a round on the house and then joining us to tell her quite gripping life story.
The Old Tollhouse has recently been revamped[/caption]
From there we went on to The Mermaid – a wonderful boozer with a good selection on the bar and a cosy vibe.
Out attempt to visit The Boot failed – to be expected on a Saturday afternoon where it was too rammed to get in.
So we moved onto the aforementioned Lower Red Lion which is a Georgian beauty and again really nicely done with a lively mixed crowd and even better at Christmas when the fire is roaring.
Then we felt compelled to go to that particularly historic Fighting Cocks just down hill from the cathedral (which, technically, makes St Albans a city rather than a town – but by now I was ceasing to care about such hair-splitting).
It was there we drank a toast to surviving olde inns everywhere.
And finally, while we were just about still steady footed, we finished at another neighbourhood pub that was charming and surprisingly lively – The Portland Arms.
What is it like to live in St Albans?
The Sun’s Assistant Travel Editor Sophie Swietochowski explains.
I grew up in and around the area – and at 31 years old, I have no plans to leave.
Why would I? It’s frequently named one of the best places to live in the UK, including in The Sunday Times in 2020 when it was crowned winner in the South East category.
It has retained a village-like feel thanks to the plethora of green spaces and a compact centre, made up of protected buildings, dating as far back as the 12th century.
You can also book a guided walking tour (‘Historic St Albans – A City Revealed’, see stalbanstourguides.co.uk) that will take you to some of the local sites that are steeped in history, including the mediaeval clocktower at the foot of the high street, next to a very modern Gail’s bakery.
On our crawl we had met a stag party – ‘it’s not too late, mate!” we cried – and a group of Gen Zers in fancy dress of various Disney
characters.
Despite our 10,000 steps for the day, there were many more we wanted to add to the list – including the town Wetherspoons The Waterend Barn, as well as The King Harry and The Six Bells.
And a shout out to the fantastic country inn, The Prae Wood Arms – posh but still welcomes muddy dogs – that is just outside the town and close to the ruins of its Roman theatre.
Legendary beer writer Roger Protz has lived and drunk in the city for over 50 years and is so steeped in its pub culture that he literally wrote the book: his ‘Ale City – St Albans’ Beer History and Remarkable Pubs’ was published in August.
Giving me some of his other pub recommendations, he told me: “You might think writing a whole book about the pubs of just one town would be a stretch – but when it comes to pubs St Albans is no ordinary town.
“The pub scene here is incredibly vibrant. Even since I finished the book, just a few months ago, what was a slightly rundown old pub, the Rats Castle, has been given a really decent makeover.
“It’s now called The Old Tollhouse (which is what the original building was) and serves Harvey’s and Timothy Taylor’s. There’s always something new.’
It’s perhaps no coincidence that The Campaign for Real Ale – or CAMRA – was founded in St Albans, over pints at the town’s Farriers Arms pub in 1972.
And they remain at the forefront of the fight to save Britain’s pubs.
Because St Albans’ success is bucking the national trend, where nationally an estimated six pubs are closing every week.
The best thing we can do to help is to use our pubs – and there’s few
better places to do this than ‘St Crawlbans’.
The Garibaldi is also worth a stop[/caption]
