WHEN you walk into a pub on a weekday morning and it feels like a lively Saturday night, you know the landlady is doing something right.
Indeed, The Bell Inn in St John's in Worcester was so full of life (and not yet 11am on Thursday) that I had to check my watch to make sure I had come on the right day and at the appointed hour.
Perhaps I'd slept in and woken up at the weekend. It's rare in my experience of pubs to feel quite so at home quite so quickly and when I speak to customers, nobody in the place has a bad word to say about it.
This is somewhere you can depend on the kindness of strangers. Almost at once the air is full of lively craic and compliments about the staff, the beer (particularly the Guinness), in fact about almost everything.
Once one customer starts with the praise, everyone seems to chime in (if you'll excuse the pun) like a chorus of bells, each one perfectly in tune with the other. This sounds suspiciously like that rarest and most elusive of all human achievements, a consensus - and an emphatic one at that.
A regular who wished to be known only as Chris, said: "It's a belting pub. Clean, tidy with polite staff. Just spot on, a real home from home. They kept the faith with the punters during Covid and that's why we kept coming back."
This is a place with a fiercely loyal following - some customers have been coming for the last 40 years - and they keep coming back, time after time.
I'm in good company - Harry Potter and Father Brown actor Mark Williams left many star-struck when he popped in for a glass of wine while filming in the city.
Other famous visitors include former Worcestershire and England cricketer Graeme Hick and another cricketing great, Allan Lamb.
When I arrived, many of the seats were already taken. In fact, I was told with a cheeky grin I was sitting in someone's favourite spot.
The beer garden at the back is right next to Sainsbury's. Far be it from me to put ideas in your head, but it might be considered the perfect place to wait while a wife (or husband) does the shopping.
Landlady Angela Freeman, 48, a former care manager, has been at the helm for the last six years and still likes to look after everyone, even doing the shopping for some of them or making them toast and coffee.
"It's a really friendly place. Customers like the fact it's quite traditional. A lot of people don't even realise we have a beer garden out the back," she said.
People often pop in for a pint at lunchtime after watching the cricket at New Road. There are also big screens showing Sky Sports and TNT.
Two regulars are Mike Clarke and Alan Bennett, both veterans. Mike was a Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) commando, discharged as a warrant officer first class and Alan left the 49 Field Regiment (RA) as a lance bombardier.
The pub (along with the Crown Inn nearby) prides itself on catering for veterans on Remembrance Sunday, opening early for them.
Mr Bennett has been coming to the pub since 1983 and even worked there for 15 years. He still comes back, praising the reasonably priced beer. They also looked after him when he had 'a bit of a wobble' with his health.
The building is a former courthouse and the cellar used to be jail cells. According to Historic England, it is grade II listed and dates from 1780-1800 with later additions and alterations.
The crooked timber frames and beams make it feel much older. Victorian floor tiles, already restored, add a touch of old world charm. The gloss polish which will follow shortly aims to make the most of the feature.
A new pub sign outside is a duplicate of one from the 1960s. It's a pub with hidden depths with a main bar, function room, skittle alley and two snugs.
Happy hour is all day every Tuesday when you can get a pint for £3.80 but repeated between 10am and 5pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, again between 10am and 3pm on Saturdays and between 11am and 3pm on Sundays.
There are four real ales on at any one time. Today it's Hobsons (Snuffly Hedge Grog), Robinson's (Trooper Premium British Beer), The Hop Shed (Frizzle Worcestershire IPA) and Wye Valley Brewery (HPA). But there are also a wide range of lagers, wines and spirits to choose from.
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There are also plans afoot to create a games room in the function room with a pool table, darts, pinball machines, fruit machines and old style arcade games.
Karaoke Friday is 9pm until close and there is live music on Saturday night from 9pm. On Sunday evenings there's bingo and karaoke from 7.30pm.
This Saturday John Radcliffe is performing a live acoustic set from 9pm. Morris men have been coming to the pub's function room in December for the last 30 years.
There are reports of a few ghostly goings-on. When one customer died the porch light flickered and unexplained noises were reported from upstairs.
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