Aberystwyth - Castle Hotel

Address: South Road, SY23 1JW. Tel: 01970 612188 [gmap] 
http://www.castlehotelaberystwyth.co.uk 

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Last APG visit: 18/05/2012

Background: Originally a two-roomed backstreet pub with a lounge and public bar (and one of the main locations in Malcolm Pryce's Louie Knight books), this watering-hole has had two makeovers in the last 15 years which have all but removed the original soul of the place, including the lovely old Victorian bar. Now it’s laminate floored, chocolate coloured sofa lounge-bar thing, specializing in being the last pub in Aber to close each evening morning. It tends to get busy - you guessed it - when the other pubs are chucking out and this place is still open. 

Student factor: The late-licence means that you get a bigger mixture of peoples these days compared to 10 years back, including some of the more well-known soaks from a particularly well-regarded Uni department who try to nick your drink when you aren't looking and pour it into their own. 

Atmosphere: Holds quite a good atmosphere late, but the new incarnation is still finding its feet during the daytime as the more clinical interior finish means that it can no longer feel busy with just half-a-dozen people in.

Drinks range: The ale range varies; there's usually a couple of unusual ones (Hop Back has been sighted previously) on in good variable nick - I get the feeling that the beer is put on and then not checked, so if it's fresh, you're in...if it isn't, it's Sarsons. There's also an interesting* keg lager - Tuborg. Hecks cider was on in May 2012 which was a welcome sight as proper cider is still difficult to come across outside of Spoons and the Ship.

TV/Music: In a victory for APG, the 'trendy' song lyrics have been removed from the walls and the jukebox no longer has the shame of having Robbie Williams' scribblings stationed above it. There used to be live music on a Friday in the form of local bands of builders who thought they were a cross between Stereophonics and Status Quo, not sure if this still happens post-refurb.

  
Other stuff: The biggest new thing here is the award of a late (very late) licence - currently, the Castle is allowed to serve drinks until 2am between Sundays and Thursdays and until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, and has a licence covering live or recorded music till 1am any night of the week (yes, I've clearly copied that from the Council's Licensing website). They're now actively pushing the hotel aspect of the place, check out their sparkly new website, though I'm not sure who would want to stay in a room above a late-licence drinking den? I have spent a night there and the room itself was pretty good (see below) and clearly sound-proofed - except for the rickety old sash windows, which of course meant that the utterance of every drunk entering/leaving/having a smoke outside was audible almost as loudly as if you'd been standing next to them. Fail.

Otherwise, there's an active dart board and pool table and also apparently food is now available. Look out for the lethal metal pole in the middle of the pub (see bottom), you’re not a proper student drinker in Aber until you’ve walked into it by accident whilst blotto. Oh and the toilets have finally been done-up - there's now even Dyson Airblades, how very metropolitan.

 

Quinno’s verdict: Clearly now trading on the late licence to make it profitable, the place seems to be finding its feet and I'm happy to have been proved wrong when I previously stated that "I'm not sure it can survive much longer if the hotel aspect doesn't work out". It's a worthwhile trudge from the Ship & Castle to finish off your evening with a few games of arrows. Louie Knight might be horrified by the new look though.

* - interesting in that I don't drink much lager....