Friday 26 October 2007

Aberystwyth - Fountain Inn

Address: Bridge Street, Trefechan, SY23 1BE. Tel: 01970 612430 [gmap] 
Last APG visit: 03/03/2011

Background: Genuine two-room, multi-layered old-skool pub, tucked away just over Tref bridge, past the pet shop. Tales persist that this was once a hive of activity, populated by gays, rockers and ale drinkers. Sadly for the last few years it’s been too quiet, which is a shame – it’s got a lot going for it. The old landlord (Josh) has left and the pub has been taken over and updated a little. 

Student factor: One or two, normally friends of the person behind the bar or a couple in Aber Town colours after a match. Role-players sometimes turn up on a Saturday if they’ve been casting spells and bashing each other with plastic axes in the woods nearby. Mainly locals otherwise. 

Atmosphere: Quite often lacking unfortunately, unless you’ve brought a few in and got the jukebox fired up (the locals will always let you know what they think of your selection). The ex-landlord (Josh) had a lot of banter, if he was in there was a bit more life about the place.


Drinks range: Used to pretty good but seems to be a bit up and down now. Was the only pub in Aber to sell a genuine cask mild – Brains Dark, now departed though still there in keg form apparently; though this has been recently replaced by Felinfoel Stout - the proper stuff too, not that keg rubbish at the Cwps. Pub used to appear in the Campaign for Real Ale’s Good Beer Guide, but not the  2010 edition.

TV/Music: TV's in the right-hand bar. A pretty good jukebox in the left, hosting mainly Rock, Blues and Indie, with a smattering of Now! albums from back in the day. 

Other stuff: Pool table and the white UPVC toilet walls that look like they’ve come off the Crystal Maze. There was also a murder here a few years back.

Quinno’s verdict: This is a decent pub that has a lot of unfulfilled potential. Fancy getting a few cheap, quiet jars in before a night out or watching Aber Town over the footbridge at Park Avenue? Try here. It’s been criminally neglected by the last few generations of Aber students.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Fountain was possibly my favourite, but has always suffered
(benefitted?) from the laziness of students who can't be arsed to walk
over the bridge. Played there a lot with my band because they were always
very accommodating (and we generally managed to bring a large group of
hangers-on with us so business would have been good). Good to hear Josh is
still there. I still have a vintage Fountain t-shirt somewhere.

Anonymous said...

The Black Death vodka they served in here was quality, it made Jim give a name to every single fish in the fishtank. I wonder if they survided the extra nutrition we provided them with.

Anyway, I remember the Fountain doing a great pint of Pedigree, long before Wetherspoons ruined it for me.

Anonymous said...

Apparently, someone called a local Simon Cowell in there reasonably recently and got the shit kicked out of him. It was on Radio 1! :D

Anonymous said...

I think this has suffered a bit because of license-law revisions. Many years back I knew it as the place to be around closing time, as they "forgot" to throw people out after the doors were shut - very popular with students and off-duty late-shift firemen from across the road. Often hassled by the plod on account of it, despite having a totally trouble-free atmosphere. Josh is a great guy, glad he's still in charge. This place does deserve more attention, I think. I, too, have been known to wear a vintage Fountain T-shirt, belonging to a partner who actually lived above the place for a while.

Anonymous said...

I had the dubious "honour" of knowing the murderer referenced in one of the comments. It happened during the first year of my LLM. Very sad what happened...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1442543.stm

Unknown said...

I had the dubious honer of being one of the people behind the bar, it was fun but i often didnt take as much money as i was erning for the shift.

as staff i allready knew what the cambrain news has recently confermed, josh is hiding out in s. wales somewhere on child porn charges.
the pubs recently been sold, but im on an exchange so cant tell you about that.

its the renacters who drink theire, they get offended if you confuse em for roll players or LARPers. the permenetly not quitye dead/on the edge of a renassance caving club also call the fountin home. we dont know why

Anonymous said...

We still sell brains dark!

Quinno said...

@ Anonymous - Keg, presumably. Will amend the above.

Anonymous said...

Spent a wonderfull week there in 1974, playing darts with the natives and enjoying the hospitality of ladlord Rodger and some other guys, especially Less and Warren.
Great momories!!!
Eby from Bremen in Germany

Anonymous said...

I used to love this pub when I was a student back in the late 80s - early 90s. It never used to shut and we were able to colonise the place until the wee hours of the morning - I don't think we were ever actually asked to leave. I am returning to Aber on holiday this summer and I will pop in for a drink for old times sake.