THE BIG DERBY “CURATED PUB SURVEY”. No. 3 – EXETER ARMS

May 2025. Derby.

An ambitious agenda;

a half of Doom Bar if you can guess how many pubs we actually did. I didn’t actually spot any Doom Bar in Derby, and fully intend to write to CAMRA to ask them to campaign to protect that historic beer.

Nope, it was Bass after Bass on Friday, though a bit of relief for Will and I as I forced him to abandon the route after admiring the majestic Derwent,

and popping in the Exeter Arms “for a quick half“.

Why not ? It’s in the GBG, sells local beers, probably independent beers (ugh); I even put it in my Top 100 pubs, for goodness sake.

OK, it went “a bit chintzy” a decade or so ago,

oddly for a pub recently run by a bloke who was in Anti-Pasti.

No ’80s Brit Punk on a soundtrack of Simply Red and the Bee Gees, but at least that was “More Than A Woman“. Will wasn’t convinced.

Oh look, they’ve got that Thornbridge Union beer, how performative. Bet you never see it again.

It was food enough, cool and rich (NBSS 3), and I’m probably keener on the Exeter having eaten here.

Mrs RM would love it. But if she’d seen the incident where the young woman in All Saints t-shirt surveyed that 1838 clip but was told by Bloke “You wouldn’t like it” she may have exploded.

NEVER, EVER, tell a woman what she will and won’t like.

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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.

18 thoughts on “THE BIG DERBY “CURATED PUB SURVEY”. No. 3 – EXETER ARMS”

      1. Each time I phoned well in advance the landlady wasn’t about and she didn’t phone back. A couple of days beforehand she was there but by then it was no room at the inn on the Friday night.
        I spent the night of 15th June 1974 on Derby railway station after first drinking Shipstones in the Alexandra but am too old for that sort of thing nowadays.

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      4. Yes Martin, and they even let me stay for half an hour after you’d left.
        .
        LAF, Glasgow Queen Street and Carlisle were the other two railway stations where I’ve spent a night, though early morning departures maybe meaning not a proper night.

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      4. I think I remember the Silk Mill and the Peacock as worth visiting, but that was last century.
        Ian’s up to date though and got us to the right pubs.

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