TOP 100 PUBS – PRINCE ALBERT, ELY

January 2024. Ely.

Time for a second pint by the Cathedral with Sis before rushing back to the station carrying forms and a kettle.

All change in Ely’s little pub scene, one that didn’t have a single pub in GBG21 as the branch didn’t put any pubs forward (because Covid, remember it ?).

The micro was just about to re-open as a 3 Blind Mice Tap, the craft beer bar/bottle shop goes from strength to strength, the West End House has just returned to the Guide after a decade long absence, and the long-awaited Spoons is but a dream.

But they were all closed that Monday afternoon, as was the unfathomable but loveable Fountain, so our best bet near the Minster was just round the corner.

20 years ago the Albert was THE Ely pub, and it’s still the first name on the “Visit Ely” team sheet, but it’s been in and out of the Guide of late.

Despite the livery I’m not sure it’s Greene King anymore, and the Mild it was famous for isn’t brewed anymore, but that’s a beer range us Old Codgers can appreciate.

Plum Porter and the 3 Blind Mice brown beer for Sis, both cool and sparkling (NBSS 3.5). It’s become a bit more foody and upmarket in the last decade, but that front bar remains a drinkers room of the highest order. We got chatting to an Ipswich fan chap from Attleborough doing an Ely pub crawl and marvelled at a room containing the full diversity of human (well, Fen) life.

Two lads with laptops and coffee were replaced three Old Boys with caps and pints, and if I could have stayed for a pint of that Butcombe I might never have left.

A gem, and if they end up being a Bass outpost I’d not be surprised.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

13 thoughts on “TOP 100 PUBS – PRINCE ALBERT, ELY”

  1. I miss the Mild and wish the Juice Rocket was a regular, but there’s always a choice and it’s adequately off the beaten track to not attract too many tourists like me. Their Summer beer fest was fun, absolutely rammed everywhere but the front bar strangely enough. Ely folk, when expressing a preference, prefer drinking in a tent it seems.

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  3. I enjoyed the Prince Albert when I had a between-trains Ely crawl in March 2022. (It’s a relief to know it wasn’t my beer scores that got the Minster into the GBG – my first scores were submitted in May 2022. In fact, I didn’t even have a drink there: https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/2788/)

    I really liked the Albert. Though it’s a little odd to find a back street local with prices so much above average – I paid £2.45 for a half, which was before prices went through the roof. https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/2791/ Worth every penny? You betcha!

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    1. The Albert has changed hands a couple of time since a couple who seemed to have run it since the 60s left a while back, which is the only reason I can think it’s been in an out of the GBG. The TT Landlord was £4.50 when Kentish Paul visited with us in 2017.

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      5. Speaking of fake beers, I had some very nice Davenports IPA in the Port House, Stourport, on Saturday night. As it’s not the original brewer why do their glasses claim a date of 1829. Also 1829 doesn’t seem to match anything in the original Davenports history?

        The beer tastes very modern, so what’s the point of it all?

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      7. Andy,
        “not the original brewer” but a Baron Wayne Robert DAVENPORT, born June 1967, has links to the new company and so that puts them beyond reproach !
        They are expanding rapidly and will soon reopen what had been Wetherspoons’s Butlers Bell in Stafford.
        Their Littleton Arms in Penkridge sometimes doesn’t have any of their own beers on.

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