The best pubs in Bath, according to our city expert

There’s something about pubs that accentuates the seasons, with beer gardens merrily beckoning in summer and roaring fires compensating for gruelling winters. And the best pubs in Bath can perfectly bookend a weekend here year-round: cider under low slung beams as you crawl off the train on a Friday night, and then the laziest of Sunday lunches to recharge you for the week ahead, with Somerset’s bounty firmly in the spotlight.

Tucked at the bottom of Broad Street next to St Michael’s Church is the dimly lit Saracens Head, said to be the oldest pub in the city and an old haunt of Charles Dickens that’s deliciously riddled with tales of ghosts. Then there’s the Grade-I listed George Inn a few miles out of town, in the village of Norton St Philip which proudly boasts its creaking age too, having been built in 1397 by Carthusian monks. But it’s not all old-world charm. All eyes are on The White Hart in Widcombe (a five-minute hop from the railway station) which is being overhauled by the chic Walcot Group; The Grapes on Westgate Street hosts life drawing classes upstairs alongside local ale; and at the community owned The Bell Inn a queue snakes for the pizza bike. Here is our pick of the best pubs in Bath, from old-school drinking holes to foodie havens – each with that cider-fuelled West Country buzz.

The Marlborough TavernDave Watts Photography

The Marlborough Tavern

It’s hard to trump the location of this 200-year-old pub just minutes from John Wood the Younger’s show-stopping Royal Crescent: the perfect refuge once you’ve ticked off the sites. Wind up here for a run of inventive small plates (think Korean-style fried chicken breast with a smashed cucumber salad) or a sharing plate of Somerset charcuterie, before saddling up for a Marlborough Tavern burger, towering with pickles and smoked cheddar. The head chef’s Bloody Mary is the perfect warm up for its Sunday roast, and when the sun shines there’s a shady walled garden to spill out into.

Address: The Marlborough Tavern, 35 Marlborough Buildings, Bath BA1 2LY
Website: marlborough-tavern.com

Hop Pole Inn

When this 16th-century country inn, less than four miles outside of Bath, shut its doors in 2018 and property developers loomed, the villagers launched the Save the Hop Pole Inn campaign with fervour. Fast forward to the beginning of 2025 and the doors were open, interiors stripped back (muted greens and scrubbed wooden tables) and the menu cleverly curated by chef Charlie Rawlings, with meat sourced from his family farm less than a mile away (try the tartare of Great Ashley Farm Beef on dripping toast). Locals can once again descend for a pint of ale (as well as wine tastings and comedy evenings) and the hearty lunchtime sandwiches (think Coronation chicken piled high in a milk bun from Pipit bakery in nearby Bradford-on-Avon) make it a non-negotiable pitstop for hungry cyclists navigating the towpath along the Kennet and Avon Canal.

Address: Hop Pole Inn, Woods Hill, Limpley Stoke, Bath BA2 7FS
Website: hoppoleinn.uk

The Talbot Inn

With a 15th-century church tucked behind it (complete with a statue by Sir Alfred Munnings), the Mells River meandering nearby and the best of Somerset’s rolling countryside as the backdrop, The Talbot Inn is farcically bucolic. This is one of the Beckford Group’s line up of West Country pubs (its first was the Beckford Arms outside the village of Tisbury in south Wiltshire which is a mecca for Londoners fleeing the capital for a weekend in the sticks), and all four of them offer a masterclass in what a pub should be: candles lit, regulars lining the bar, local ales, tired dogs at heel and food that is restaurant worthy without the pomp. At The Talbot Inn, step under the carriage archway into a cobbled courtyard and settle in for a pint of Talbot ale on a wrought iron table or decamp inside for plates of rabbit, port and pistachio terrine perhaps, or the hearty Talbot honey roasted ham with duck eggs and chips – all well worth the 20-minute trip from Bath.