Pub 122, Day 47 – The Princess Royal

By Rob

Twas the season to be jolly! Determined to make merry, Andy and I propelled ourselves headfirst into a night of Pubquesting. Conveniently, my friend Niamh and a bunch of her university friends (who we didn’t know) were out boozing in some of the pubs around Crookes. Always happy to hijack other peoples’ evenings and transform them into exciting adventures (irrespective of their wishes), we decided to tag along.

We discovered they were in The Hallamshire House. We explained we'd already visited that pub. They explained they didn’t care. We explained that it would be better to visit somewhere we hadn’t already been to. They explained they were not prepared to structure their whole evening around our pointless blog. We explained that this was hardly reasonable and that, if forced to do so, we would go and drink someplace else on our own. They explained they didn’t care, that they didn’t know us that well, and that it was weird to be having this conversation with us in the first place.

So, we went to The Princess Royal instead.

And weren't we glad we did?! It was a cosy, stone-built little pub, with a good few guest ales on offer. The barman offered some brief, friendly chat, and poured us each a pint of Harley – a reasonably nice, but pretty average, pale ale from Welbeck Abbey Brewery.

The pleasant surprises continued when we discovered a snooker room, and they continued even further when I beat Andy 1-0.

The pub was pretty quiet, but it was snug and charming. Warm, friendly, and nicely decorated with Christmas lights, it proved a very welcoming atmosphere on a cold December night. We didn’t especially want to leave, but we hadn’t eaten dinner and the crisps, nuts, and scratchings on offer wouldn’t be sufficient.

Besides, we had decided that if we couldn’t convince Niamh’s friends to come on a Pubquest journey with us, then we must persuade Niamh to abandon her friends and join the adventure.

There was work to do.

Princess Royal snooker score: Andy 0-1 Rob
Pubquest snooker score: Andy 4-4 Rob

Pub: The Princess Royal (43 Slinn Street, S10 1NW)

Rating: 8.5/10

Pint: Harley

Brewery: Welbeck Abbey Brewery (Welbeck, Nottinghamshire)

NEXT UP: Snow White's Christmas party, at The Old House...