The Bear, Northampton

Attractive pub from the outside, with a black-and-white façade of uncertain age. Once inside, though, you find a modernised L-shaped sports bar with no real character left. However, later on a Thursday evening, reggae music was the order of the day. Anyway I was pleased to find Landlord and Hobgoblin Ruby (£2.70) available from a pair of handpumps on the main counter, but then one for Abbot at the left-hand end.

The Bear is a nice looking pub that is situated in the middle of Northampton. Once inside the bar faces in an opened out L shaped room,the floor is bare boarded,the seating is tall tables and chairs on the right side,there is a pool table and bar football to the front left,the rear side is down one step and has normal tables and chairs. There were two real ales on the bar,i had a drink of St Austell Tribute which went down well,the other real ale was Hobgoblin,there was also a real Cider on the bar. Background music was playing and the pub was fairly busy on our pre 11am visit. I thought this was a decent enough pub to start our Northampton crawl in. Pub visited 1/10/2016

Large and impressive half-timbered building. Pretty bland inside, it’s an opened-out L shaped interior, painted an oppressive red and white with polished wood floor. The lower part of the L has booth style seating. Unashamedly sports bar in style, with pool and multiple screens. Two ales on, Hobgoblin and Tribute plus a clutch of boxed ciders. I wasn’t expecting much from the beer but the Tribute was surprisingly good. Once source of facepalm was the innovative(ish) Euro 2016-themed food and drink options but the groups were all wrong. I guess it serves a function for sporting events but I can’t imagine I’d feel the need to see the inside of this place again anytime soon.

A very good looking half timbered building from the outside. Inside it's been broken out into one large room though with a pool table at one end. There is a large sign outside that says "We Sell Cask Ale", they're lying. If they don't have any cask ale on a Friday late afternoon, when are they going to be selling it? There are 2 handpumps though, one was empty, the other had a GK IPA clip turned round. I turned round as well!