We meet the landlady of three of the last ‘proper’ Bristol pubs

At a time when many pubs are struggling and closing their doors for good, three ‘proper’ old-school Bristol boozers are thriving and actually getting busier.

The Whitehall Tavern on Devon Road in Whitehall, The Long Bar in Old Market and The Mardyke in Hotwells are all run by Miranda White and Stuart Cox. Next month, the husband-and-wife team celebrate nine years running The Whitehall Tavern, which they finally bought in February 2022.

The couple bought the pub from previous owner Robert Hancock, who also ran the other two pubs in the past and they have continued with his ‘friendly and cheap’ approach to running successful community pubs.

“Robert’s USP has always been to keep things simple and keep the prices as low as possible and that is the common denominator for all three of our pubs, although they are all quite different,” says Miranda, whose family were also in the pub trade.

“Both sets of my grandparents ran pubs. My mum’s dad worked for Bass his whole life in Burton-on-Trent so I was very familiar with the smell of hops and the sounds of the brewery from an early age. My parents were well aware of the pub life and when you live upstairs it’s all consuming. Some would day that’s the downside and it’s not for everybody but Stuart and I make a really good team.

“It’s tough for couples running pubs but we seem to have thrived and survived so I’m grateful for where we are now.”

Another thing all three of the couple’s pubs have in common is just how cheap the drinks are. With most pints under £3,they are among the cheapest pubs in Bristol, where many pubs are happy to charge twice that. At The Long Bar, Miranda and Stuart have also tried to tap into a new market on top of their old regulars.

Miranda says: “One of the things about The Long Bar is that there was massive untapped potential from the student population.

“The previous manager was very loyal to her regulars and locals which meant she opened early in the morning and closed early but our new manager now opens the pub slightly later and stays open later. It is really tapping into that student clientele in the evenings and it’s busier than before.”

When Miranda took over The Long Bar, she refurbished it and cleaned it up a bit but she wanted to keep the wood floors and traditional pub feel rather than make it look too trendy.

“If you have a fashionable pub you have to keep changing it but if you make it timeless you don’t have to. After all, it’s an amazing 450-year-old building.”

Since the pandemic and the rise in the cost of living, many places have closed but Miranda and Stuart’s trio of pubs are bucking the trend. She said: “To be really honest, it hasn’t been that difficult. At The Whitehall Tavern, for example, we have a really loyal customer base and a lot of locals.

“In fact, because of the economic climate at the moment we are getting steadily busier because other pubs are so expensive. We’re really proud of what we do and we believe it’s the right thing to do to offer a nice safe place where people can come and have reasonably priced drinks rather than sitting at home.

“Like a lot of small pubs, our biggest competition isn’t other pubs but it’s people buying cheap drinks from supermarkets and staying home to drink. We keep overheads as low as possible by keeping things really simple. I’m passionate that we keep pubs like this open but it’s not easy because the buck stops with us.

“There’s no head office, there’s no financial back-up and you’re a little fish in a big pond but to your regulars you’re really important. It’s really important pubs like this are kept alive.”