Stanley Arms

This is a lovely old backstreet boozer with two bars and a number of interesting original features, making it worth seeking out. Entering via the corner door into the Public Bar on the right-hand side of the building, you find yourself in a bare boarded room with the servery immediately to you left. The bar has a nice dark wood counter with a traditional bar back and a very attractive multi-coloured stained-glass canopy. The walls are half panelled with green painted uppers decorated with a mix of art prints, plain mirrors, breweriana and promotional material, some of which was advertising the screening of live sport. An upright piano stands halfway down the right-hand wall. The windows to the front and right have frosted lower panes with ‘Wines’, ‘Spirits’ and other such enticements written across them. A door to the left leads through to the Lounge Bar which has similar flooring and décor, maroon painted walls and much comfier seating. Old school vocal jazz tunes played quietly in the background and a trip to the toilets uncovered a patio garden which was very nicely kept and had plenty of picnic benches as well as a large mural on the rear wall depicting the eponymous Henry Morton Stanley delivering his famous perceptive greeting to Dr Livingstone