Pubs Galore - the UK pub guide

Demolition work has begun on the former Harvester, to make way for a care home.

This entry should be deleted as the Cartvale replaced it years ago.

Now owned by Kirkstall Brewery and opened in August 2023 as the Three Swords. It's been done in the usual Kirkstall house style of tradition pub features, either reproduction or salvage, though the building itself is obviously not a traditional pub. There are six hand pumps on the bar, with just two Kirkstall beers, plus two from Leeds Brewery (now owned by Kirkstall, as I understand), and one from Five Points, whose beers often feature at the Cardigan Arms). It was very busy indeed on a Friday evening, with families and groups of friends doing a lot of eating and a fair amount of drinking. My two beers were tremendous - the Leeds Pale the best I have ever had and the Kirkstall brew that gives the pub its name as near perfect as makes no odds. I must come back at a quieter time and drink my way along the bar.

Dodging the April showers I made my way to Mondo’s tap room from Distortion, annoyed with myself that I neglected to take a photo of the front of the still un-photographed Distortion! Glad I did not volte face as I got here just before another downpour.

Can’t add anything to the forensically accurate description from PSM below other than nothing seems to have changed over the 4 years and a global pandemic in between. Checking my records, I started the evening of the date of PSM’s review with a pint of Brakespear’s Gravity in the Flying Horse on Wilson St over in the City.

Looking at prior reviews, realise how much these tap rooms polarise opinion - to get a 7-3-9 from three esteemed reviewers in succession illustrates that. Guess it is a matter of true personal preference.

There were 14 taps operational on my visit (see photo). I opted from a pint of the Road Soda, a New England pale ale, as only had previously tried in bottles. Was a nice drink but didn’t enjoy as much as the prior Distortion quaff.

Apart from having to meet the missus back at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Southbank in a short while, the “can’t decide what it wants to do” soundtrack would have driven me out of here before consuming too many more. Would happily have settled for pure punk or pure heavy metal, not a mix of something for everyone!

The history of this grade II*-listed pub is well documented on CAMRA’s sites and the pub’s own site; needless to say, the *** interior is absolutely stunning (see photos).
I was last in here around easter 2016, prior to that summer 2004 when for a few earlier years I was a regular, a best friend living round the corner. Aside from some chairs which seemed purloined from an African shaman, this place is unchanged since the previous reviews within the last year, with an unused pump then Thornbridge Lord Marples, By the Horns Diamond Geezer and Five Points Pale (£2.80 a half) drinkable and possibly better than Quinno’s experience, but not great; another customer was overheard questioning its quality so perhaps I’d have had better luck with the other two.
As BF mentions, this is the best pub in the area by a long chalk which says little about the competition, the grade reflecting the reflective interior; undertake the short walk to Maida Vale, visit the Prince Alfred and Warrington to up the heritage experience to 11.