A historic pub tucked away down a cobbled street in Redcliffe has been named the best in Bristol by Camra. The Seven Stars beat the Portcullis in Clifton to the accolade, which was officially announced at the Bristol Beer Festival over the weekend.
As a free house, the Seven Stars offers an ever-changing selection of beers from Sharps, Ottley Brewery, Hopback, Otter, Wickwar, Butcombe and Bath Ales.
It has been managed for just six months by 25-year-old Paul Wratten, who previously worked at a pub in Westbury and managed a backpackers’ hostel in South Africa after graduating from university.
As the Seven Stars is next to the Fleece, it is popular with the pre-gig crowd and also features some live music of its own. It’s not uncommon for a bit of a folk jam to take place. One of these was so good that I once decided to give the band I was meant to see at the Fleece a miss and stay to listen.
The Seven Stars is steeped in history, and dates back to the late 1600s. Its claim to fame is that it was in the pub that anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson came in 1787 and began to put together evidence later supplied to his friend William Wilberforce and used to support the Act for the Abolition of Slavery.
A trip to the Seven Stars cannot be recommended enough and they definitely deserve to have been named Bristol’s best pub.
The Seven Stars, Thomas Lane, Redcliffe. 0117 927 2845.
