Pints West 86, Summer 2010 - Bristol & District CAMRA

News has reached Bristol CAMRA Pubs Group ofthe Phoenix and the Rummer, two pubs owned byBristol City Council. The Phoenix, we understand, mayreopen soon and “there is interest in the Rummer andtalks are progressing.” Should they reopen, it will begreat news indeed.The Phoenix was very much a locals’ pubs in past years, basic butfriendly and at the heart of the local community. Situated at the end ofa listed terrace, it’s located next to the main Bristol shopping centre(Cabot Circus). The area has lost several pubs in recent years – somewere lost as a result of the Cabot Circus development and others such asthe Seven Ways and the Sportsman have been lost through attrition.The City Council were offering the lease on the Phoenix but are nowhappy to sell the freehold. There have been interested parties lookingto reopen the pub in recent months and, hopefully, we might see thePhoenix operational again very soon. Surely if it is run as a decent freehouse it must have a positive future given its location.The Rummer has even more history. Situated in a very prominentposition on High Street abutting St Nicholas Market, the Rummer (notthe bar with an entrance in All Saints Lane that is open for business) isBristol’s most venerable pub.The Rummer had the city’s first licence, dated 1241, when it tradedas the Greene Lattis, and it is sited in the oldest part of the city, in theHigh Street, just yards from the crossroads that once formed the heart ofBristol for over a thousand years. With extensive cellars dating back toAnglo-Saxon times, the inn has played a full part in many of Bristol’smost historic events, hosting royal visitors such as Elizabeth I, Charles Iand II, William III and even Cromwell during the Republic.Politicians such as Edmund Burke made speeches from its balconyand others sparked rioting around the time of the Parliamentary ReformBill when the pub lost its shutters, door frames and even part of thecoach office. This had been created when the Rummer became the country’sfirst coaching inn when it took part in the mail coach revolutionthat ultimately went around the world. Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridgepublished his first magazine The Watchman from here and other majorepisodes of Bristol’s literary and sporting life were witnessed within.The twentieth century wasn’t very kind to the Rummer; its MedievalPINTS WESTPhoenix and Rummer to reopen?The Phoenixfaçade was bricked over and for many years of its recent past the HighStreet elevation has been boarded up and ‘improved’ with banal graffiti.The pub had a post-war renaissance under the Berni Brothers banner,when they used it as one of their many flagship Bristol inns, but sincethat time the building has been down on its luck. Now is the time to givethe inn another renaissance, using it as a cornerstone for a revival of thiswhole area of Bristol which surely deserves another chance given itshistory and location.Fingers crossed, then, that both pubs will reopen very soon!Peter Bridle and Mark SteedsBristol CAMRA Pubs GroupParadise foundOpening hours:Mon-Fri 3pm - 11pmSat 12 noon - 11pmSun 12 noon - 10.30pmwww.otterbrewery.comRelax with an OtterPage 7