Lancaster:
We visited for lunch. It’s a hotel, but the bar is a pub, clearly, and has an air of gastropub about it. Great local beer, friendly, helpful staff (choice of glass or vile tankard, and you get asked), and really nice food: slightly posher than average but not up itself and not too bad price-wise.
Connected to Tite & Lock and The Duke of Edinburgh Hotel.
Lancaster:
A Stonegate almost spoons-a-like: so it’s the same as The Kings Arms in Morecambe, which we revisited this time: the same menu, and the same beer choice. We were just drinking pop and water on this visit, but there was ale available, the barman was pleasant, and the pub was OK, as it was quiet.
Heysham, Lancs:
A hotel, really, but the bar feels like a pub and it’s the only pub in the centre of the village.
Selection of Lancaster cask ales, plus loads of other stuff. Posh enough to be pleasant and give a good impression for guests, but not up itself, and a nice place to sit. I’m pretty sure we came in here on this trip in 2004, but PubBlog didn’t exist then. It wasn’t ruinously expensive this time, and couldn’t have been then, because we had lunch, I think.
Morecambe, Lancs:
We’d walked past The Palatine, a pub we’d loved back in 2016, but which was shut in 2021. We walked past because it was really loud and unpleasant sounding, so we dropped in here.
We’re glad we did, and we came back a few times. You’d expect a very young, trendy, overpriced poser bar with “craft” in the name wouldn’t you? What you actually get, at the times we visited at least, is decent music you can talk over, pleasant staff, decent beer at a reasonable price, and if you sit in the window or outside, a view over the bay.
Great beer choice- 3 cask,several keg taps. Decent wine too.
West End, Morecambe:
We’d made our way by bus to the West End for a curry, and we were a bit early.
Morecambe’s West End is the total opposite of Bare village: it might be described as “vibrant”. It’s the cheaper end of town. We were too early for curry, so needed somewhere for a quick pause and found this place, so dropped in. It was fine. No ale, but Kronenbourg, friendly staff (well, they were friendly to us: the local who didn’t want to wear a mask got:
[name] Put a fucking mask on or you’re barred. No, I don’t care. Put on a fucking mask or fuck off
which is the kind of no-fucking-about attitude I last saw here)
it’s a big space too, and in general had good covid precautions and made for a nice pause for a while. It’s not a tourist pub, clearly a local drinkers pub.
Hest Bank, Morecambe:
Micropub right next to Hest Bank Level Crossing, so one for trainspotters, with frequent trains on the WCML.
When we were last here this was a cafe. Lovely micropub with pleasant, friendly owner and great beer. It’s bigger than it looks at first, with a back room. There’s some outside space too.
Pretty much unchanged since 2016, great beer, pleasant staff, nice canalside location, decent food.
Another pub pretty much unchanged apart from a bit of decoration and covid precautions. Nice staff, no ale but Kronenbourg available.
Another pub largely unchanged, thankfully, just smartened up a bit. Still a great place to sit and watch everyone getting a pic at the Eric statue opposite.
It’s not changed a great deal: smartened up inside, new outdoor seating in covered booths, but otherwise, it’s the same pleasant local with decent beer.