Royal Blenheim, Oxford

A Victorian pub named after one of the stagecoach services that once served the city, it was built in 1889 for Hanley & Co. Ltd, City Brewery, and has a single L-shaped room with a raised seating area along one side. Always has a good selection of ales from local brewery White Horse and also from Titanic of Stoke-on-Trent, which has a close relationship with White Horse. Although it is now run by Titanic the freehold is actually owned by Everards which always supplies one of the beers, but the guests range from breweries far and wide and can come from as far away as Orkney. The pub has set out its stall as a real ale and drinkers’ pub and is a regular winner of Oxford CAMRA’s City Pub of the Year award and a GBG regular since 2010 with some of the keenest prices in central Oxford. It is right in the centre of Oxford yet tucked away, next to the back of Modern Art Oxford which building was built in 1888 as the 'square' room and stores for Hanley's brewery which stretched from here to Queen Street. The squares were open-topped vessels made of stone or slate for fermentation. The fermentation room is still there on the top floor. Hanley's was taken over by Hall's Oxford Brewery in 1898.