Adam & Eve, Cheltenham

As I write this post, pubs everywhere have been forced to shut up shop in the wake of the global Coronavirus pandemic. That some of these pubs may struggle to re-open again seems a very real possibility at this time, which is of course small-beer when set against the bigger picture of loss of life, and the potential collapse of our precious health service. It is however, sadly ironic that the social distancing required to tackle the spread of this virus, can itself affect our health in less obvious ways. Because for most of us, human contact and the kind of socialising that's at the very heart of pub-going, isn't an optional extra to a healthy and happy life, it's essential to our mental wellbeing.

All pubs fulfil this vital social role to some degree. For many of us, if we didn't already know it, this sudden absence in our social lives will have highlighted the true value of pubs, a value that goes beyond their role as mere purveyors of alcoholic drinks.

Whilst drinking the very best beers, wines, and ciders at home remains an epicurean pleasure that's thankfully still open to most of us, for me, and many pub-goers like me, this represents just a fraction of the pleasure derived from spending time at the pub in good company. Perhaps this awful and utterly depressing health crisis will be the thing that finally opens peoples eyes to how special pubs can be, and the important place they still occupy in our increasingly fractured society.

The Adam & Eve

What would turn out to be my last proper weekend away before lockdown was a trip to Gloucestershire in late March, and even this was touch-and-go given that it was during the latter stages of yet another devastating Severn flood. As it was, Tewkesbury was damp, but very much open for business, and I'm so glad that I went even though some of the pubs I was aiming to visit were closed due to the flooding. I finished the weekend with a short Sunday stopover in Cheltenham, the town braced for a deluge of its own given that this was the weekend before race week...

Now I've got into the slightly lazy habit of heading straight to the Bath Road when in Cheltenham. The new-ish Bath Road Beers bottle shop/micropub has lately become the go-to venue for more 'modern' styles of beer in Cheltenham, and as such it's been a while since I've visited anywhere new, different, or indeed any of my old favourites. This time I fancied a change, and with the benefit of hindsight I'm very glad that I did.

I like to think I know my way around most of Cheltenham pubs, but the fact is there are still plenty that I've never been to, including a good few that represent the towns longstanding skittles tradition. I had a couple of pubs in mind that day, including a large estate pub in the leafy post-war suburbs that would have to wait for a less rainy day.

The Adam & Eve is just a short walk from the town centre in an area I've never properly explored. Quite why or how I've managed to miss the Adam & Eve all these years is a bit of a mystery though. It's such a well-loved pub locally, a former Good Beer Guide regular that nobody I know has a bad word for, even though it seems to have fallen off the beer enthusiasts radar in recent years. This is an Arkells Brewery pub, so you'll find no murky craft beers or cutting-edge imported hop-monsters here. Just a solid, traditional, locally special backstreet boozer, serving the local beers its loyal locals want.

It's likely that pubs like the Adam & Eve will be missed more than most by their locals during this crisis. When I popped in at the crack of opening time on Sunday, I don't think I could have got through the door any earlier, and yet a scattering of locals were already settling in for the afternoon. A couple of chaps methodically working their way through a game at the Dartboard. A smartly dressed elderly couple occupying a prime position near the door, all the better to greet friends and acquaintances as they arrived, myself included. A handful of bar flies of course, chewing the fat with the gaffer over the first pint of the day. And half a dozen regulars grouped around a table on the edge of the Skittle Alley, the unmistakable banter of a serious card game that looked like it would go on for most of the afternoon. I had a pint of something good from the local brewery, I don't recall what it was. Watching the timeless workings of a solid traditional locals pub on that most traditional of all pub sessions is thirsty work after all.

The Adam & Eve is one of perhaps a dozen or so venues in Cheltenham for Skittles. The alley located slap-bang in the middle of the pub, which must dominate proceedings when a noisy match is progress. The pub hasn't always had this slightly unusual layout. The story goes that the pub was originally just the left-hand side of the current building, the alley running down the right-hand wall and projecting out to the rear of the building. Needless to say this was something of a noise issue for their immediate neighbours, so when the chance arose the brewery bought the property to the right of the pub and knocked through. At a stroke doubling the size of the pub, putting the alley in the centre of the resulting space and no longer adjoining a residential property. That's real dedication to Skittling! Or perhaps an acknowledgment by the brewery of the serious trade that Skittles brings to pubs like the Adam & Eve.

When this lockdown ends, and pubs are finally allowed to re-open, I doubt whether the locals of the Adam & Eve will have gotten so used to drinking at home that they won't be rushing back to the pub for the Sunday session. Proper locals pubs like the Adam & Eve are social-centres first and foremost, and represent what pubgoing is all about in my view. When this lockdown ends, it's pubs like the Adam & Eve that I'll be rushing back to.