-The Watergate Inn-
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Look & Feel:
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Toilets:
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Review:
The Watergate Inn is an old coaching house down Walmgate which for many years was a true “no go” pub under the name of the Five Lions. Luckily in 2015 it was taken over by new management and given a second lease of life for an all too short stint before the Boxing Day Floods devastated the building. Happily it reopened in late spring 2016 after extensive refurbishment. The interior is stripped back and opened out with pale blue wood panelled walls, wood floors throughout and a few vintage touches in the lighting. It all seems a little stark and empty though, the new bar has been reduced in size from the original and sadly has just three real ales, but only two working pumps when we visited. The choice wasn’t much to write home about either, although the prices were still pretty reasonable. The layout is fairly standard with a good sized seating area to the front and some additional window stools further down. Out towards the back is access to the Inn’s rooms and some good clean toilets. If you venture outside and down the passageway right down at the bottom of the car park is a small beer garden which backs onto a rarely seen section of the river Foss, mainly dominated by the multi-storey car park opposite it’s still a peaceful urban river setting unlike most riverside beer gardens in York. Halfway down the car park is also a covered seating area which provides more outside space for those warm days just without the views. I think I did expect a little more in the way of updating of the pub with a bit more of an adventurous beer selection to keep up with the ever evolving scene down Fossgate and Walmgate, but at the end of the day The Watergate Inn is a pretty good standard pub and a massive improvement from the days of the Five Lions. It’s clean, welcoming and well-priced, just feels a little like a lost opportunity hence the slightly lower score.
The Watergate Inn is an old coaching house down Walmgate which for many years was a true “no go” pub under the name of the Five Lions. Luckily in 2015 it was taken over by new management and given a second lease of life for an all too short stint before the Boxing Day Floods devastated the building. Happily it reopened in late spring 2016 after extensive refurbishment. The interior is stripped back and opened out with pale blue wood panelled walls, wood floors throughout and a few vintage touches in the lighting. It all seems a little stark and empty though, the new bar has been reduced in size from the original and sadly has just three real ales, but only two working pumps when we visited. The choice wasn’t much to write home about either, although the prices were still pretty reasonable. The layout is fairly standard with a good sized seating area to the front and some additional window stools further down. Out towards the back is access to the Inn’s rooms and some good clean toilets. If you venture outside and down the passageway right down at the bottom of the car park is a small beer garden which backs onto a rarely seen section of the river Foss, mainly dominated by the multi-storey car park opposite it’s still a peaceful urban river setting unlike most riverside beer gardens in York. Halfway down the car park is also a covered seating area which provides more outside space for those warm days just without the views. I think I did expect a little more in the way of updating of the pub with a bit more of an adventurous beer selection to keep up with the ever evolving scene down Fossgate and Walmgate, but at the end of the day The Watergate Inn is a pretty good standard pub and a massive improvement from the days of the Five Lions. It’s clean, welcoming and well-priced, just feels a little like a lost opportunity hence the slightly lower score.
