Kelham Island Tavern

Our Take

The only pub to win CAMRA National Pub of the Year two years running, with multiple Yorkshire Pub of the Year titles to its name — credentials that would be insufferable if the pub itself weren't so genuinely excellent. Since 2002, this 1830s building has focused single-mindedly on real ale done properly: always including a stout, porter, and selection of IPAs, always featuring at least one beer from local Blue Bee Brewery. The rear beer garden is excellent — substantial, well-maintained, and the kind of place you sit down for one and leave three hours later. Simple snack menu of pork pies keeps things honest. This is what a great British pub looks like when nobody tries to modernise it into irrelevance. Afternoon pints here feel like an education in what ale is supposed to taste like.