Next time you push the front door open at the Hatchet, you might want to wash your hands. For it is reputed that beneath the paint and tar, there are layers of human skin. For good measure, it is also reputed to be haunted. Perhaps by the poor unfortunate whose skin got left behind.

This whole pub is steeped in just as many layers of history as its door. With a name thought to originate from the axes used by the woodsmen in Clifton Woods, the grade II-listed building dates from 1606.

Inside, there are plenty of nooks and crannies and places to hide away from prying eyes and ears.

There was once a cock-fighting ring and later a boxing ring, where many of Bristol’s bare-knuckle champions fought in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries, commemorated with a plaque in the beer garden.

The tall gabled section best viewed from Denmark Street forms part of the original inn, with damage in the Blitz to houses on either side seeing them rebuilt as added wings.

Now a well-known alternative pub, with regular rock and metal club nights, it is also a popular spot to meet before a gig at the nearby Academy. Beer options include Courage Best and Doom Bar, with Thatchers Gold the choice of cider.

The Hatchet, 27 Frogmore Street, Bristol, BS1 5NA. 0117 929 4118.