Yahoo News The Chain Locker, Falmouth, Cornwall, pub review
Sometimes you walk into a pub, and so demanding on the eyes is the interior that you end up having a nose about before suddenly remembering what you came in for. The Chain Locker is that sort of place.
There’s a lot of wood on display, worn and weathered, on the floor, walls and ceiling. For some reason I think of a wardroom aboard an old ship of the line: I half-expect to start pitching and rolling as a midshipman totters over with some grog. After all, I am in Falmouth, and I’ve just passed a couple of RFA ships in the docks.
Or maybe it’s the maritime décor that suggests the wooden walls of England. There are black-and-white snaps of wrecked vessels and sailing ships from the days of The Onedin Line, as well as framed warnings about smugglers; varnished and faded plaques record the names of more ships, long gone to the breakers’ yard.
Even the ceiling hasn’t escaped – a massive wooden eagle spreads its wings above a space at the front of the pub. “We’re still trying to find out its origin,” says the bartender once I’ve finally made my way to the bar. “Presumably a ship.”
Maybe it’s the maritime décor that suggests the wooden walls of England
The Chain Locker is owned by local brewery St Austell, a full range of whose rather splendid beers is on display. The sun is shining and the weather warm: to complement this luminosity, I ask for a Proper Job, the brewery’s gold-flecked, juicy, dry and bitter IPA (4.5%).
There’s more to this harbourside inn than a world of wood, though. The first floor has a modern restaurant and there are bedrooms with views of the Fal. It also has a history going back to the 16th century and has probably seen all manner of sailors, fishermen and even landlubbers come and go through the years.
Last year it was closed for refurbishment, but St Austell made sure that all these artefacts went back in the same place as before and that its character wasn’t spoilt. A proper job was done (so to speak), and even though the sun continues to shine outside, where there is more space to sit, the wooden walls of old Falmouth call me back inside for my second pint.
Quay St, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 3HH
01326 311085; chainlockerfalmouth.co.uk
