Pub Heritage Red Lion
Gloucestershire & Bristol - Ampney St. Peter
Three star - A pub interior of outstanding national historic importance
Listed Status: II
Ampney St. Peter
GL7 5SL
OS ref: SP0889901394
Tel: (01285) 851596
Real Ale: Yes
Public Transport: Near Bus Stop
Bus: Yes
View on: Whatpub
UPDATE 2024 After being closed since 2014, the pub reopened in May 2023, albeit with limited opening hours (currently 5.30pm-10.30pm, Thu, Fri & Sat). Fortunately, there have been no changes to the pub's historic core.
One of the great unspoilt rural classics and one of only eight traditional pubs with no bar counter. Happily reopened in 2023 after ten years closure, this remains a must-visit despite its limited opening hours.
The pub occupies two rooms in a 300-year-old stone-built cottage with service in the small public bar to the right but arrangements are not what you would normally expect as there is no bar counter, drinks being served from a small area behind a long bench. The quarry-tiled room has dado panelling, wall bench seating, a window seat - and that's about it. Another room across the corridor is used if the bar is busy - there's a hatch for ordering beer. The little changed interior is due to the remarkable fact that the previous licensee,John Barnard, was only the fourth since 1851.
UPDATE 2024 After being closed since 2014, the pub reopened in May 2023, albeit with limited opening hours (currently 5.30pm-10.30pm, Thu, Fri & Sat). Happily, there have been no changes to the pub's historic core.
One of the great unspoilt rural classics. The porch leads to a central corridor. Service is in the small public bar on the right with a ‘2’ on the door but arrangements are not what you would normally expect. This is one of only eight traditional pubs left in the whole of the UK without a bar counter - the others being the Cock, Broom, Bedfordshire; Crooked Billet, Stoke Row, Oxfordshire; North Star, Steventon, Oxfordshire; Tuckers Grave, Faulkland, Somerset; Rose & Crown, Huish Episcopi, Somerset; Kings Head, Laxfield, Suffolk; and Manor Arms, Rushall, West Midlands.
In the bar, you'll find a long bench that creates a narrow area for the licensee to operate in with just a couple of handpumps mounted by the back wall and a stool where they sit..
The last change to the interior of this pub was probably the adding of a red Formica top to one of the shelves in the old cupboards to the left of the narrow area. Note the glass model of the interior of the pub situated on one of the shelves. This quarry tile-floored room has a wooden dado panelling, wall bench seating and a window seat. In the corner is a Minster concrete fireplace, one of 50 added to pubs by Stroud Brewery circa 1950. (There was one in the left hand room but it deteriorated and had to be replaced.) Note the old ring on a piece of string on the wall which operates a bell - this is now only used by customers if glasses are being cleaned in the kitchen.
Across the corridor is another room behind a timber screen forming the left hand wall to the passage. It has simple benches against the wall, a baffle by the door and a brick and wood surround fireplace. In the corridor with its parquet floor is a small sliding hatch through to the ‘servery’ which was the original off sales. It is still used today by customers of the second room when it is too busy in the bar to get served. They slide the hatch and order the beer through it. No new-fangled inside loos here – both the ladies’ and the gents’ are outside on the left.
The pub was bought by Tetbury Brewery Co. in 1851, which was taken over by Stroud Brewery in 1911. The oval inn sign is a thick metal Stroud Brewery one. In the 1950s Stroud Brewery and Cheltenham and Hereford Brewery amalgamated to form West Country Breweries – note the ‘West Country Ales 1760 Best in the West’ ceramic wall sign by the entrance door.
