What do you do if the pub you have run for years gets snapped up by a developer and knocked down? All that remains of Patrick Gomm’s former pub the Artichoke, on the corner of Lewins Mead and Lower Maudlin Street, is a pile of bricks. After a short sabatical, he upped upped sticks and moved to one of Bristol’s smallest pubs, Quinton House just up from the Clifton Triangle.

After lying empty for 18 months, Patrick completely gutted the place and started everything again from scratch, creating a lovely little pub that when I visited with friends Tim and Tom on Tuesday night, was as busy as ever (although a pub this small looks busy with half a dozen punters) and pleasingly warm with not one but two roaring fires.

Our only gripe was that the music was far too loud. You don’t go to a pub like the Quinton to have to shout at each other. But this was obviously a mistake as the volume was soon turned down.

There is no clutter in the L-shaped room, with a small television in the corner showing Sky Sports News the only distraction. There would be no space for anything else anyway, and this is one of the Quinton’s charms.

Before its overhaul, I had only visited the Quinton once, after an Invisible Circus show at the former Pro-Cathedral across the small patch of grass. (Like the site where the Artichoke once stood, work on transforming the Pro-Cathedral into luxury flats has ground to a disappointing halt)

Then, it was still a welcoming place, old-fashioned but charming. There is only so much ‘character’ an old pub can have, however, before becoming dilapidated, and the Quinton was treading a fine line. Now, without losing its charm, the Quinton has once again become a little gem.

Quinton House, 2 Park Place, Clifton. 0117 907 7858.