The Bath House, Benet Street
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Key:
Bar: Greene King
- Having been taken over by GK, it's brought back interesting real ale to an extent,
with the likes of Adnams on in addition to GK beers.
- Open all afternoon.
- Previously, undler Whitbread/Laurel ownership:
- Underwent a complete overhaul in March 2000, changing it from a cozy place with wood beams & the like
("Bath Ale House") to a brightly-decorated young persons' venue with comfy chairs and sofas.
- Accordingly there were fewer hand pumps, the remaining ones concentrating on the national blands.
A couple of months later sparklers went onto the pumps and staff refused requests to remove them.
- For a while it continued to have interesting (though now spoilt) beers from time to time, including City of Cambridge ones.
However that ended with the change to Laurel Pubco in July/August 2001.
- They also followed the dodgy practice, commonly found in the Hogshead and Wetherspoon chains, of
leaving a pump clip visible after a barrel has finished.
If one complained, staff said "it's policy from the area manager" and did nothing.
Some Trading Standards departments have tried fighting this.
- Before the 2000 refurb it had been going downhill from about June 1999 due to a change of landlord which in turn may
have been due to a disagreement over a planned refurbishment.
- Previously it often had interesting guest beers amongst its 13 hand pumps (plus two barrels behind the bar),
such as City of Cambridge ones. It had friendlier and more knowledgeable staff than in its sister bar
The Hogshead - the staff clearly knew about and cared about quality real ale.
It was corporately decorated in the trendy lots-of-wood-and-not-much-lighting style, though in this
case much of the wood was probably original or at least not recent.
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