It's a pub, and it's a boat, so don't go through the menu, there's up to 12 real ales on offer and you might miss the steps!
Charters: Town Bridge.
A tastefully converted floating Dutch barge (Leendert-R), which now holds a real ale / late night live music bar on the lower deck, with a 100 seater full oriental restaurant called East on the upper deck. Charters is situated on the river Nene in the centre of Peterborough, on the west side of the town bridge and is reputedly the largest converted barge in Great Britain.
Origionaly named "Leendert-R" it was built in 1907 & worked on the rivers and canals of Holland, Belgium and Germany, carrying cargo such as sand and grain right up to 1990. The barge is 176ft long, is made of riveted iron and had a licence to carry 616 tonnes. It was brought across the North Sea and was converted into Charters Bar and restaurant, opening in September 1991.
Real Ale features heavily at Charters and the venue is a popular haunt for CAMRA members and other lovers of good beer. The bar is the largest floating real ale emporium in Great Britain, with 12 cask ales on tap doing around 500 guest ales a year. Plenty of benches to sit outside, on land!
(Go south: Station, top left; Charters, Bridge St. middle right; Ground, bottom right.)
The Brewery Tap: 80 Westgate.
The Brewery Tap opened in 1998 and is located within the transformed old labour exchange on Westgate, Peterborough. The pub houses a multi award winning micro-brewery called Oakham Ales, claiming to make it the largest brewpub in Europe. |
Inside its spacious open plan layout, which is all non-smoking, you are likely to find up to 12 real ales, a wide range of draught products and bottled conditioned beers, funky wines, and a large range of non-alcoholic drinks for drivers. The food available is Thai cuisine freshly prepared and cooked by experienced Thai chefs. The layout of the pub enables customers to relax and watch their food being prepared in the kitchen, through a high level window, before being served to their table. The Tap was named "OWN BREW PUB 2009" and over the past 10 years has seen many glowing reviews for it's food, beer, and service from local press and also in national papers and magazines. It is featured in all of the Good Pub Guides and in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide. |
(Westgate and the pub right in the middle not far left of the station.)
Driving In:
The Bell Inn: Great North Road, Stilton.
The Bell Inn, historically an important stop on the Great North Road between London and York, is one of the finest surviving examples of a 17th century Coach House in the country.
Renowned as the birthplace of Stilton Cheese and situated in the village of Stilton, The Bell has stood on its present site since 1500, though earlier incarnations, (as long as 1437) have been recorded. The current buildings date from 1642.
Renowned as the birthplace of Stilton Cheese and situated in the village of Stilton, The Bell has stood on its present site since 1500, though earlier incarnations, (as long as 1437) have been recorded. The current buildings date from 1642.
This is a fabulous pub on a previously important, but now somewhat quieter, main road. The Oakham JHB was quite superb.
Just got into the Beer Guide, which it (just about) deserves; the building is quite superb, not at all the slightly faded coaching inn some expect - worth a visit as a treat.
Used to have a 'no colours' rule, mainly due to Southend fans celebrating our promotion in the pub in 1990, but I'm sure they've relaxed that by now!
