The White Cross, Lancaster

Pub SignMan left this review about The White Cross

This is a very large, split level pub with a pleasant location alongside the canal that runs through the town centre. You enter via a large canalside patio with lots of bench seating,which must be great in the summer, but was a pretty grim prospect on a Winter's evening that was cold enough to have frozen the canal. Through the front door, you emerge into an upper dining level which runs in a narrow, carpeted strip behind the servery and has lots of formally arranged tables and chairs under huge arched windows, although the space was a bit dead until one large group arrived and filled it. Head down a set of steps, past a few tub chairs, to the main bar area, with the servery acting as a screen between the upper and lower levels. The bar has a simple counter and some low-level glass panes in the bar back. Opposite is a spacious carpeted seating area with high tables and stools giving way to banquettes and padded chairs around the perimeter. Beyond the end of the bar is a plain space dominated by a pool table with a huge clock on one wall, whilst elsewhere large local photos, a shelf full of old Good Beer Guides and a few plain mirrors do their best to fill the wall space. A cool 70s and 80s rock soundtrack was playing throughout my stay and there was a modest sized, mainly younger crowd on this Monday evening. .
The ale range was one of the most extensive I found in Lancaster, with a long row of handpulls offering a choice between Bowland Pheasant Plucker, Lancaster Red, Sharps Doom Bar, Tirril Borrowdale Bitter, Settle Ernie's Milk Stout, Haviestoun Bitter & Twisted and Taylors Landlord, plus two real ciders. My pint of the Milk Stout was decent enough and the barman was a supremely chilled individual, despite it getting quite busy when I arrived, and served me out of turn, ignoring the stupid queue of people who had formed at one end of the bar.
I thought this was one of those pubs that probably work well in certain contexts, but didn't quite do it for me on this occasion. On a warm summer's day, the canalside seating would be an undoubted winner and working through the many ales might seem an enticing prospect but on a cold, dark evening I found the pub a bit too big and impersonal to settle down in and was content to head off as soon as my pint was finished. I may well have scored this very differently under other circumstances.

Date of visit - 15th January 2024

On 12^th May 2024 - rating: 6
[User has posted 3126 recommendations about 3126 pubs]