At the start of 2023 we added a new column to our pub visits spreadsheet having reflected on changes in our pub going habits.
Those changes were partly due to the disruption caused by COVID-19 but were also a result of moving to another part of Bristol.
The new column was about gathering data on our behaviour within a given year.
We shared some initial stats in January after one month of data but now we’ve got a full 12 months to play with.
Firstly a caveat; our spreadsheet only captures our visits to Bristol pubs. Tempting as ‘every pub in London’ might be, we’re not the people to tackle that particular challenge.
And although we have started logging visits to taprooms we’re a bit lazier about it and don’t really trust our own numbers to the same degree.
So, we’re happy that the general shape of this data is correct, even if there might be a few inaccuracies or omissions.
The big numbers
In total we logged 125 pub visits in Bristol, across 54 different pubs.
Within this list a mere 19 were new to us, but it was enough to get us over the 300 mark on our ‘every pub in Bristol’ mission.
We think it’s clear that, these days, there is not any one pub that we really regard as our favourite or our local, now that we’ve moved an hour away from The Drapers Arms.
The Swan with Two Necks, The King’s Head and The Barley Mow (St Phillips) are our most visited pubs, and are all within a 20 to 25 minute walk.
Sort-of our local, but not
Of the pubs that are closer to us, The Old Stillage is probably the one we’d be most tempted to refer to as ‘our local’.
But with only 5 visits over the course of the year it’s not exactly a regular haunt.
In fact, we visited The Drapers, way across town, as often as The Old Stillage, less than 10 minutes from our house.
That’s partly because The Old Stillage a totally different pub on Friday and Saturday night (loud DJs, excitable young people) than the rest of the week (murmuring jukebox, mixed crowd).
It’s also about 5% too grungy and hippyish for Ray – one of the slight tensions between us when it comes to judging pubs.
Some 2024 resolutions
We made an effort this year to revisit a lot of pubs from our Bristol Pub Guide to check that our descriptions were up to date. But there are a few contenders to which we didn’t make it, and we really must fix that in 2024.
We’ll try to get better at logging taprooms this year too. We do find ourselves at Lost & Grounded on a fairly regular basis, for example, so we need to stop pretending we’re “not taproom people”.
We’d also love to polish off the rest of the pubs in the city, getting up to 350 or whatever it is.
Jess has some crawls planned to scoop up a few key clusters but, otherwise, we just need to get on the bus and get out to those suburbs, even if it’s just to tick one mediocre Greene King pub.
The data
| Pub Name | Address | 2023 Visits |
| Swan with Two Necks | St Philips | 12 |
| Kings Head | Victoria Street | 10 |
| Barley Mow | Barton Rd | 7 |
| Old Fish Market | Baldwin St | 6 |
| Hare on the Hill | Dove Street | 6 |
| Llandoger Trow | King Street | 6 |
| Drapers Arms | Gloucester Rd | 5 |
| Old Duke | King Street | 5 |
| Old Stillage | Church Road | 5 |
| Zero Degrees | Colston Street | 4 |
| Merchants Arms | Merchants Rd | 3 |
| Small Bar | King Street | 3 |
| Highbury Vaults | St Michael’s Hill | 3 |
| Good Measure | Chandos Road | 3 |
| Langton | Langton Court Road | 3 |
| Grain Barge | On the water at Hotwells | 2 |
| Red Monkey (former Chums) | Chandos Rd | 2 |
| Ostrich Inn | Redcliffe | 2 |
| The Annexe | Nevil Road | 2 |
| Fishponds Tap | Fishponds Road | 2 |
| Eldon House | Cliftonwood | 1 |
| Volunteer Tavern | St Judes | 1 |
| Strawberry Thief | Bread St | 1 |
| Prince of Wales | Gloucester Road | 1 |
| Orchard | Hanover Place, Spike Island | 1 |
| Stag and Hounds | Old Market | 1 |
| Open Arms (former Colston Arms) | St Michael’s Hill | 1 |
| Rose of Denmark | Hotwell Rd | 1 |
| Royal Naval Volunteer | King Street | 1 |
| Old Bookshop | North Street | 1 |
| The Shakespeare | Prince Street | 1 |
| Post Office Tavern | Westbury on Trym | 1 |
| Hatchet Inn | Frogmore Street | 1 |
| Oxford | Oxford Street, Totterdown | 1 |
| No. 1 Harbourside | Harbourside | 1 |
| Bulldog | Filton Avenue | 1 |
| Green House | The Centre / Park Street | 1 |
| Rose and Crown | Two Mile Hill Road | 1 |
| Bear & Rugged Staff | Southmead | 1 |
| Treble Chance | Southmead | 1 |
| Rising Sun | Ashton Gate | 1 |
| Good Intent | Broomhill | 1 |
| Grapevine (Brasserie) | Mangotsfield | 1 |
| Red Lion | Mangotsfield | 1 |
| Lamb Inn | Mangotsfield | 1 |
| Foresters | Downend | 1 |
| Forge and Fern | Staple Hill | 1 |
| Pied Horse | Summerhill Road | 1 |
| Star | Hanham Road | 1 |
| Kings | Kingswood High Street | 1 |
| Kingswood Colliers | Kingswood High Street | 1 |
| Black Horse | Kingswood High Street | 1 |
| To the Moon | Midland Road | 1 |
| Old Castle Green | Gloucester Lane, Old Market | 1 |
9 replies on “Life in numbers: our 2023 Bristol pub visits”
Well done! Through the pandemic I’ve become a bit of a bit of a personal data nerd. Not asking for identification of other categories but do you track other things as thoroughly?
Er… Yes. A few things. Mostly about distances travelled, books read etc.
Sorry to have caused an “err”! 😉
Bearing in mind where your most visited pubs are clustered, why only one visit to the Volunteer? I had it down as a must revisit for our stay in Bristol at the end of this month. Maybe I’m wrong to do so?
The Volunteer rather than the Famous Royal Navy Volunteer on King Street? It’s a good pub, and in our Bristol pub guide, but maybe not an absolute favourite. I think we’d have visited more but it’s often pretty busy, or we get distracted by the Swan on the way. Maybe the crowd skews young and hip, too, so we feel a bit out of it.
Yes, The Volunteer Tavern, New Street. I do remember it being busy when we last visited (2 years ago?) but the clientele was mixed inside, if younger in the beer garden. Interestingly, we didn’t discover the beer garden until after we left, walked round the corner and back passed the pub on the other side.
I must visit Swan with Two Necks more. My first visit for about 6 months yesterday. Still excellent.
Do you mean Kings Arms on Kingswood High Street (my nearest pub and a “semi-local”)? Or Kings Head on Two Mile Hill?
If on Kingswood High Street / Regent Street the Lyons Den (micropub) is also worth a visit, but maybe you did that in a previous year.
Oops, we meant the Kings Arms.
Yes, we have been to The Lyon’s Den, but not since it opened. Skipped it the other day because we were pursuing ‘ticks’ and can only drink so many beers in one session.
We were in The Swan With Two Necks yesterday, too, enjoying tunes and taters.
“It’s also about 5% too grungy and hippyish for Ray – one of the slight tensions between us when it comes to judging pubs.”
Admirable honesty, I love the personal touch in your posts. I know Mrs RM would have been less than impressed if I’d tried to get her in the Kings Arms (before refurb !) when everyone was drinking cans of Natch.