We visit the popular Bristol sports pub with 12 TV screens to watch the football

If you are planning to watch this Sunday’s Women’s World Cup Final in a Bristol pub, there can be no better place than The Rising Sun. This huge pub between Ashton Gate stadium and Greville Smyth Park has no less than 12 large TV screens dotted around the pub and garden - surely more than any other pub in the city?

The TVs are carefully positioned in such a way that it’s virtually impossible not to see a screen wherever you are in the pub. Sunday’s match between England’s Lionesses and Spain kicks off at 11am and The Rising Sun will be open then, but the bar won’t be serving until midday, just after half-time.

Of course, that may change as pubs are urgently calling for the government to relax licensing laws so they can serve alcohol before the kick-off. We’ll see. Still, it won’t deter fans from pouring into the pub in much the same way they do on Bristol City match days or before Bristol Bears games.

The Rising Sun reopened in 2022 after a lengthy closure but it has gone from strength to strength in the past year. The pub, which dates back to the 1850s and was once part of Ashton Gate Brewery, had a complete refurbishment by owners Craft Union.

There’s one large bar in the main room, a skittle alley, pool table and two dartboards plus a spacious beer garden with plenty of covered seating for rainy days. I didn’t see any food menus when I visited, but with Scampi Fries and Bacon Fries - still the kings of the pub snacks - on offer, it didn’t matter.

Walls are decorated with a range of Bristol City memorabilia, from old team photos to framed programmes. A highlight for me was a 1965 match programme with a front cover advert for the long-gone Flamingo Room at The Carlton Club in Lawrence Hill with its ‘licensed bar, cabaret, dancing and steak bar’.

My perfectly poured pint of Guinness cost a reasonable £3.95 and other draught products include Foster’s, Carling, Stella, Moretti, Madri, John Smith’s, Neck Oil, Staropramen and two Thatchers ciders - Gold and Haze.

On this late morning visit (the pub opens at 10am most days), the two real ale pumps were without their clips and awaiting fresh barrels but Cornish ales Sharp’s Doom Bar and St Austell Tribute are apparently among the regular cask choices.

With such a huge range of drinks on offer and a dozen screens inside and out, this popular sports pub is certainly the perfect place to roar on the Lionesses even if you can’t drink for the first half of the game.

The Rising Sun, 21 Ashton Road, Ashton Gate, Bristol BS3 2EA.