Alma Tavern, Worcester

I guess it's inevitable that as the COVID lockdown was gradually eased, and businesses of all kinds finally allowed to reopen, some would question why pubs seemed to have been favoured ahead of other, perhaps equally deserving businesses and resources. In fact we know that there are some who question why pubs have been allowed to reopen at all given the potential for issues around alcohol and social distancing.

At this point I feel duty bound to disclose a personal interest. I love pubs! Pubs are important to me, perhaps more-so than they are to most regular pubgoers. Certainly I much prefer to drink my beer and cider in the mixed social environment of a pub rather than at home. But I also appreciate the way that pubs at their best are important social hubs, of huge importance to their locals as well as visitors like myself, and often the wider community through events and the huge amount of charitable fundraising that many pubs engage in. Of course if you don't like or use pubs, or merely view them as just another licensed restaurant option, this love of the pub might be a little difficult to understand.

Because pubs are not just about serving alcohol for profit, despite what certain sections of the popular press might have us believe. For some, particularly the elderly, they may be their only lifeline with a genuine shared social experience, and even those of us in a more privileged position still rely on the neutral space pubs provide for a genuinely 'open' social experience rather than a self-selecting, perhaps even insular one. Where else can you rub shoulders with such a wide social mix with the implicit understanding that conversation is not only possible, but often expected. Individually, pubs are special for all manner of reasons, but collectively the pub as a concept is special for entirely social reasons, something I believe may have become apparent to even the most casual of pubgoers during this dreadful pandemic. We can drink beer anywhere, the pub experience is only truly open to us at the pub.

Which brings me nicely to the Alma Tavern in Worcester and its hugely popular mascot Alma Bear. Along with all the nations pubs and clubs, the Alma closed its doors in May for what many of us believed at the time would be a relatively short time. As we now know, it would be months before a light appeared at the end of the lockdown tunnel. What has also become apparent is that many pubs, the Alma included, didn't just sit back on their laurels waiting for things to get better. A takeaway food and off-license service helped maintain a semblance of normality for many regular pubgoers, and many pubs have strived to maintain their connection with the local community through online events and charitable fundraising. Licensee of the Alma Tavern Will Bradley went one step further, taking to the streets as his alter-ego, Alma Bear!

While I was enjoying a pint and taking these photographs at the Alma Tavern recently, I was a little perplexed at the the almost constant tooting of car horns outside on the busy Droitwich road. That was until the barman helpfully explained about Alma Bear, the pubs locally famous furry mascot. Alma Bear was originally created by the licensee to help boost interest in the pubs Saturday Kids Craft Club, as well as being a popular attraction for childrens parties and the like. With the lockdown knocking all these initiatives on the head, Will decided that everybody could do with a bit of a cheer-up, taking Alma Bear 'on the road' with regular walkabouts in and around Worcester for socially distanced meet and greets. So Alma Bear was outside the pub that day, working the Saturday afternoon crowd, all thumbs-up and waves to great appreciation from the many travellers in and out of the city. Talk about popular! Practically everyone was waving back, huge smiles all round, a real tonic in these difficult times. This is what pubs at their best are all about, and this is why those of us who love them have welcomed the return of pub-going with such enthusiasm.

In common with almost all the pubs I've been to since reopening, the Alma has probably never looked better. De-cluttered and clean as a whistle, it's an attractive pub to be in even with the ubiquitous bar screens and social distancing signage. Another feature that's common to pubs at this time is the removal of the Dartboard. I doubt there's much of an issue around actually playing the game, more that it just doesn't fit in to the current social distancing regime where we're duty bound to choose a table and stay there as much as practicable. Televised sport is still on offer though, as is good food and a couple of decent real ales.

League Skittles and the pubs Skittle Alley are currently out of action too, but still serving a useful purpose as the pubs well-equipped function room, due to be pressed into service for the afternoon Football when I visited, part of managing the pub to help reduce crowding in the main bar areas.

Beauchamp Arms, Malvern, Worcestershire

The sprawl of settlements that lie at the base of the spectacular Malvern Hills, and the many pubs thereof, have become a happy hunting ground for us in recent years. Pubs of all shapes and sizes, well-patronised by locals it would seem, some with a good reputation for the beer and/or food, and perhaps surprisingly for such a touristy area, not all of them are dull, managed, food and family venues.

Top of the list for us is the very highly regarded Nags Head on the edge of the historic Great Malvern Spa Town. A really great beer pub in my experience, with good food in the adjacent restaurant, a tidy beer garden, and a true 'pubby' atmosphere in the low-beamed somewhat labyrinthine interior. Yes, it attracts a slightly upmarket clientele, but this is a pub that’s anything but exclusive, in fact it's one of my (many!) desert island pubs. Down the hill at Barnards Green you’ll find The Morgan, a regular Hereford Pale Ale and Cheese & Onion Roll stop for me. It's a locals pub that also attracts the tourists like ourselves (including the odd Morgan car enthusiast I'm sure). Perhaps a smidgen more earthy than the Nags, but a pub you’d be more than happy to take your mum to, particularly in the Summer months when the beautifully maintained patio garden really comes into its own.

Which brings me to the largely residential area located to the north of Link Common, a more urban, or at least suburbun part of the wider Malvern community centred on the smaller Malvern Link rail station. The pubs in this area are of particular interest to me, being somethat less touristy, and a fair bit more 'Darts & Dominoes' in character. Practically all of these pubs are traditional 'locals' with a strong pub games interest, and this includes a cluster of venues for the local Mens and Ladies Skittles leagues.

The Beauchamp Arms certainly fits this mould. A fairly typical, largely unspoilt town centre boozer situated within a row of shops and other local amenities. It's also one of the closest pubs to the rail station, though equally accessible via a pleasant walk across the common from Great Malvern. An attractive, grade II listed building to the front, a pair of shallow bay windows flanking the entrance being the pubs principle historic feature. Inside, the pub has been opened-out at some point to a single bar area, though it's easy enough to discern the original three room layout from its 19th century origins as a Showell's Brewery pub.

Bar areas to the left and right feature original bench seating which follows the line of those big bay windows. Note too that the original heating pipes that would have kept drinkers warm in the winter are still in situ below this seating (right), a once common feature of basic bar rooms like this one. A number of Bell Pushes (above) also survive in what would have originally been the Lounge or Smoke Room, though now unused of course. This highly civilised aspect of bar service has now almost entirely vanished from pubs, though ironically table service is now back in vogue under the current social distancing rules. These bell pushes would have been used to summon a waiter or other member of staff for table service in the 'posher' of the three original rooms, usually incurring a small service charge for the privelage.

Today the Beauchamp is an entirely wet-led pub, a place for a chat over a pint, as well as the pub staples of games, televised sport, and until the recent national shut-down, a growing reputation for live music in the function room/skittle alley at the rear of the pub.

That almost all of the pubs in the Malvern area have now re-opened following the lockdown is heartening to see, but pubs like the Beauchamp will take a long time to get back to anything like normal under the current rules and restrictions. Bar rooms that would normally be alive with the rattle and hum of Darts, Dominoes, and Cribbage play are inevitably struggling with the social-distancing rules. Traditional pub games that are the lifeblood of community locals like the Beauchamp are exactly those which are deemed too risky, and therefore out of bounds. I very much look forward to a return visit to the Malverns area in the near future, ideally in happier, more socially interactive times when the Beauchamp Arms and other community locals in the area are free to trade at their very best.

The function room to the rear of the pub is entirely self-contained for entertainment of all kinds. There's a Pool Table, Dartboard, separate bar, and the kind of Skittle Alley that can be packed away so as to avoid it being a tripping hazard when not in use. The slatted playing surface is of course permanent, but the left-hand retaining wall is removable and stored behind a set of doors which conceal the actual business end of the alley (below) when not required.

The Beauchamp is active in just about all the local games leagues, including those for Mens and Ladies Skittles, all now mothballed of course until next Summer at the very earliest. It looks as if the Malvern & District Cribbage League may have just managed to wrap up competition ahead of pubs and clubs closing in March, sadly not all leagues were quite so lucky.