Camra launches online national pub guide
WhatPub.com is the culmination of a two-year project by thousands of Camra volunteers, featuring 47,000 pubs -36,000 of which serve real ale - with over thirty different search criteria such as dog-friendly and live-music venues.
“Camra has developed WhatPub to be the ultimate online pub guide for all pub-goers,” said the organisation’s director Andy Shaw. “It may even help encourage people who have stopped using pubs regularly, since WhatPub will help them find the ideal pub to suit their needs.”
WhatPub entries are written by local Camra members and then approved by dedicated branch volunteers. A full entry offers a description and pictures of the pub along with the address, opening hours and details of who owns it.
It also lists the regular real ales they stock, states whether the pub offers guest beers, highlights the its main features (e.g. availability of food) and gives a map of where the pub can be located.
Unbiased reviews
Camra members can then score the quality of the real ales served in the pub, which in turn helps Camra select entries for a number of local and national publications.
Shaw added: “WhatPub differs from many other pub websites which are based on details provided by the person who owns the pub, who may be a little biased.
I would like to thank the thousands of CAMRA volunteers for their time and effort in submitting these entries. It is this process that makes WhatPub totally independent.
“WhatPub has plenty more future planned developments but we are very proud of the website launched today and CAMRA hopes everybody will enjoy using it.”
Examples of pubs featured on whatpub.com:
- Nutshell, Bury St Edmunds (Smallest pub in the UK) - One of the claimants to the title of ‘England's smallest pub’, with an interior measuring only 15 by seven feet.
- The Baltasound Hotel, Shetland (Most Northerly pub in the UK) - The capital of Shetland, Lerwick, is 70 miles and two ferry rides away from the most northerly hotel in Britain with 25 guest rooms. At midsummer an almost perpetual daylight exists, known locally as 'Simmer Dim'.
- The Baum, Rochdale (CAMRA National Pub of The Year 2013)
- Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, Nottingham (Reputedly the oldest pub in the UK) - This historic pub is hewn out of the rock on which Nottingham castle stands. Previously known as the Pilgrim, no one knows for sure how long an Inn has stood on this site.
