The Raven, Bath

Posted on 18. Jun, 2010 by Robert Gale in Pubs

The Raven, Bath

The Raven is a freehouse located in the heart of Bath. The pub consists of two Georgian town houses and it’s located on Queen Street – a quiet cobbled street not far from the famous Milsom Street.

The Interior

Voted by Bath and Borders branch of the Campaign for Real Ale as Pub of the Year 2010 and 2006, the Raven has been a pub for over a century. The interior is split over two floors with a bar on each floor. The ground floor has a large bar in the corner and bar floorboards throughout. The walls are a mixtured of bare stones, plaster and paint and are adorned with wooden placards engraved with mottos. The basic feel of the pub adds to its character.

I didn’t venture upstairs but according to the Pig Guide, the ‘supper room’ upstairs is a lot more cosy.

Beer, Food and Entertainment

Being a free house, the selection of beer is excellent. There were 5 ales on tap 2 of which were brewed especially for the pub. Raven and Raven’s Gold are brewed for the pub by Blindman’s Brewery based in Frome. Also on tap was Mole’s Elmo’s Fire, Butts Golden Brown and Cottage King Arthur. A pint was £2.95 which whilst not cheap, was cheaper than the nearby Coeur De Lion. They also sold a small selection of foreign bottled beers including Duvel, Bacchus Frambozen, Chimay and Flying Dog.

For food, the pub serves a large range of locally made award winning ‘Pie Mninster Pies’ and include:-

Thai (free-range British chicken, Thai green curry, sweet potato and lime), Mr Porky (free range pork, shallots, apples, leeks, Somerset cider, sage)
Heidi (goat cheese, sweet potato, spinach, red onion, roasted garlic)
Chicken of Aragon (free-range British chicken, smoky bacon, garlic, vermouth, tarragon)
Matador (free range British beef steak, chorizo, olives, tomatoes, sherry, butter beans and garlic)
Raven Ale Pie (West Country beef, onion, carrots, Raven ale, green peppercorns and thyme)

For entertainment you can forget music, TV or fruit machines. Instead there is a bookshelf full of books, regular storytelling nights, science club meetings and poetry readings.

Apparently the pub does get busy at weekends but when I visited early on a sunny Sunday afternoon, it was relatively quiet.

More Photos of the Raven

Venue Location

Cayo Arms

7 Queen Street

Bath

BA1 1HE

Tel: 029 2039 1910

www.theravenofbath.co.uk

View on Google Street View

Robert Gale (Twitter: @awv)

Beer Taster, Pub Attendee, Photo Taker

Robert Gale likes beer, pubs and beer festivals. He also likes to take photos of beer, pubs and beer festivals. Most weekends of the year you can find him travelling around the UK (and sometimes beyond) photographing and reviewing good quality pubs and beer festivals. He also has a day job in the form of a web developer for Ozum.