Albion

Just ten minutes from the famous suspension bridge, this is a bustling and friendly little 18th-c pub down a cobbled alley in the heart of Clifton village. By the main door there's a flagstoned area with a big old pine table and a couple of candlesticks, a dresser filled with jars of pickles and an open kitchen. Further in, the L-shaped bar has high chairs by the counter, chapel chairs around good oak tables on the stripped wooden floor, brown leather armchairs in front of the woodburning stove with its neat log stacks on either side of the brick fireplace, and some cushioned wall seats; up a step is an end room with a rather fine and very long high-backed new settle right the way across one wall, similar tables and chairs and unusual silvery peony-type wallpaper (elsewhere, the sage green half-panelled walls are hung with portraits). Bath Ales Gem Bitter, Otter Bitter and Sharps Cornish Coaster and Doom Bar on handpump, good wines by the glass, 30 malt whiskies and winter hot cider; piped music, board games. The covered and heated front terrace, with church candles in hurricane lanterns, has plenty of picnic-sets and other seats under fairy lights.