Tributes paid to award-winning Bristol pub landlord Mark Farrell

Tributes have been paid to a much-liked Bristol pub landlord who has died. Since 2016, Mark Farrell was the owner of Chums, a micropub in Redland, but he had run several pubs in the city before that.

Chums in Chandos Road was named after a walking group he belonged to and it went on to win the Bristol & District CAMRA Pub of the Year in 2018. It has also featured in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide for the last few years.

The small pub in a converted shop gained a reputation for the range and quality of its real ales and also hosted regular Irish music. Mark had been running pubs in Bristol for many years, including the now-closed Plume of Feathers on Hotwell Road as well as the nearby Three Tuns on St George’s Road.

Bristol & District CAMRA’s Peter Bridle said fellow members of the local branch were ‘very saddened’ to hear the news of Mr Farrell’s death. He said: “Under Mark’s stewardship, Chums was a welcoming pub offering a range of good quality real ales and was popular with the local community and beyond.

“Such was the high standard of the reasonably priced real ales the friendly welcome and general ambience of the pub that it won the Bristol & District CAMRA Pub of the Year in 2018.

“Mark Farrell was a popular and respected licensee in Bristol for many years. He was always up for a friendly chat with his customers and he was liked. He will be sadly missed by customers and suppliers alike.”