The Armoury, Shrewsbury

This is a top quality restaurant type pub which has been owned by a family run pub company called Brunning and Price since 1996. The building was originally a Georgian armoury but it was moved brick by brick to its current location from the Armoury Gardens on the East side of the town in 1922! It was then used as a military convalescence hospital and later a bakery. The interior is one wide but shallow open plan room with high ceilings, a wood panel bar counter in the middle of the back wall, half a dozen supporting pillars down the centre of the room (running left to right), natural wood flooring, a Victorian style fire place which is completely painted black in the middle of the right hand wall, full height (floor to ceiling) libraries of books dominate the entire left hand wall and the back right corner, the remaining walls are bare brick with waist height natural wood panel and various paintings and old photos crammed together in places. The large arched windows across the front of the building allow good views of the river and provide a well lit room. Furniture is traditional but mixed so it looks like it has been purchased from various sources at different times. Its worth noting that there is wheel chair access at the rear of the building and there is a disabled toilet. Regular ales are currently the house bitter Brunning & Price Original, Wood Shropshire Lad, Hobsons Twisted Spire and Salopian Shropshire Gold with four changing guest beers which on this occasion were Three Tuns XXX, Sadler’s Green Man, Ruddles County and Old Speckled Hen. I tried the Wood’s, Hobsons, Salopian and XXX all local and in good condition in my opinion, I thought the Ruddles and Specky Hen were a strange choice of guest beer for a free house. The house bitter is brewed by the Phoenix Brewery in Manchester. A very good pub which despite being predominantly food orientated has an excellent selection of local ales, the food is a little on the pricey side but it is freshly cooked and good quality. The pub has been in the GBG but not since 2005 which is a bit of a surprise as I personally think it is better than some of the pubs in the town that have made the cut in recent years. I’m not usually a big fan of large open plan foody pubs but this is probably one of the best of that type that I have visited.

A large modern food led bar in a splendid riverside Georgian/Regency building. The central door leads into a long narrow open plan room dominated at each end by book caes. The furnishing is a mix of old dark brown wooden furniture in various styles including some upholstered settles. The large round top windows down one side give views across the river although there is not a riverside terrace. Most walls have an eclectic selection of old photos, prints, and advertising posters. The staff are on the ball and pretty slick as is the beer quality. One surprise is that the tables don’t have brass numbers which is odd for a food led place. There are eight pulls with mainly local micro products plus two low T Bars and lots of wines and spirits. It backs onto the Lloyds No1 Montgomery's Tower through its back door.