Torquay – Clocktower
Ross has returned back to sunny Norwich today, so this pub is the only one I went to in Torquay where he wasn’t there with one of his quality lagers. This is a Craft Union bar owned by Stonegate and, as is visible from the frontage, it was built in “circa 1889”. I’m not sure what to think about that as most builders don’t put “circa” on, so this date is a later addition. There are also plenty of newspaper articles about the pub from this time, usually relating to drunken people in it, but no mention of a rebuild.
This map is from the 1870s (the pub is just by the E of ‘Market Street’) and there has been a pub here since at least the 1850s. The pub is named after the nearby clock tower which was completed in 1902, but this pub name is from around the 1970s, it was previously the Old Market Inn from when it opened. For a while, the pub was part of the Norman & Pring brewery estate, although this was acquired by Whitbread in 1962 and subsumed into their empire.
The pub interior and the dog that came to say hello to me on numerous occasions. I was genuinely surprised that the pub was full, it was a wet day and there were numerous other empty venues nearby, so they’re doing something right here. There was a community feel to the arrangement and the staff member was welcoming and friendly. There are numerous TVs showing sport, although I didn’t notice any customers actually look at them at any stage.
A pint of Fuller’s London Pride was £2.85, typical of the low pricing from Craft Union. They don’t serve food here, it’s just a high turnover of affordable drinks which is keeping them going. According to CAMRA, there are rarely guest beers, it’s the London Pride or Sharp’s Doom Bar. The reviews of the pub are generally positive, but they’re burdened by a heap of negative ones from nearly a decade ago such as:
“Made a racist quip, tried to back out by blaming fifa and forgot the power of social media. If you were really against them you’d ban all the matches idiots.”
This is because the pub decided it wouldn’t show the Northern Ireland and Wales matches as the teams didn’t wear poppies. The Sun reported that the venue had received thousands of negative reviews and although most have seemingly been wiped, many more persist.
Craft Union pubs have the challenge that they offer very cheap drinks, which is not always the easiest demographic to deal with. Here though, they had a mature and sensible crowd in by the looks of it, although I’ll like offend some of their irresponsible customers by saying that. It’s a cheerful place, friendly service, a couple of real ales, affordable prices and probably rather busy during the summer months as tourists intersperse with locals.
