Russell Arms, Lawrence Hill, Bristol

I was lucky enough to visit the Russell Arms just before it closed down. The Russell Arms is a very basic looking pub that is situated on a side street off the main road through Lawrence Hill. Once inside there was a small L shaped room with the bar facing,there is a lino floor and bench seating to the left with chairs,the front right side is down steps. There were no real ales on the bar,i had a drink of John Smiths Smooth Crap,which was a pretty poor drink. I really like doing pubs like this. A great shame that it has closed down. Pub visited 8/4/2017

Closed, boarded up and freehold up for sale.

This used to be a great family pub but now its not very welcoming landlady is rude lets her child run round screaming then closes at 10.30 because it her sons bed time how can you run a pub like this

A traditional street corner pub that has had a bit of a refurbishment since my previous visit many years ago. It's a fairly compact, L-shape affair with an additional small room down a couple of steps at the back which houses a pool table. The decor is unremarkable, with rough cream plasterwork on the walls and some pale brown paintwork that would look more at home in a gastropub. There is bench seating around the perimeter and one end of the pub narrowed off to a point and this was stacked up with chairs. The music was a little too loud, and there were a couple of TV's dotted around which were not in use. A notice advertised a forthcoming meat raffle which always strikes me as one of the indicators of a proper local's pub. There is a small outside courtyard which you have to walk through to get to the loos and this had some interesting murals on the wall of old steam engines. I particularly liked the fact that one of the tanks on the engine was painted to look like a can of Natch. Unfortunately there were no real ales on tap, just keg John Smiths and Courage. Ciders were well represented though with Thatcher's Traditional, Taunton Traditional, Blackthorn and Thatcher's Gold. These were very reasonably priced at £5.10 for two pints.