Beccles – Ingate

First in our day out in Beccles was the Good Beer Guide listed Ingate pub, around a ten minute walk from the centre of the beating heart of the town. The Ingate has been serving the local community since 1906 and it was initially built to be a hotel as well, although there’s no longer accommodation offered here.

My first impression is that I was surprised and delighted to see that the two sections of the pub were still separated out into the lounge bar and the saloon bar. The divide now is more between a lounge bar and a sports bar, with some creative interior design to add to the atmosphere. We were welcomed promptly on arriving and it felt a genuinely inviting pub to visit, as well as being spotlessly clean.

This is the sort of DIY project that I’d started and then get bored with after about 25 coins. My friend Liam would probably be tasked with finishing the whole arrangement off.

These resin tables seem to be the on trend design element at the moment.

More decorative work and I have to note that I was impressed with the effort that the publicans have put in here.

There are no shortage of darts boards in the Ingate. There are also numerous screens showing a variety of different sports and for those customers who are excited by the prospect, there’s also karaoke.

If a pub can’t have a bar billiards table then a pool table isn’t far behind in excitement value 🙂  Unfortunately, Julian and I don’t have time for pool during our intensive study tours.

Julian managed to miss this when he walked by it.

There were two real ales available and I went for half a pint of the rather agreeable Little Green Man 1 from Green Jack Brewing, a beer I’ve had a few times in the King’s Head on Magdalen Street. The beer, which is named after the first pulsar signal which was discovered in November 1967, was well kept and was suitably refreshing. I had expected a slightly wider choice of beers, but I enjoyed this one and it’s far better than to have two impeccably kept options rather than four beers that don’t quite taste right.

An article in the Sun ‘newspaper’ mentioning the pub in a favourable manner. We were thanked as we were leaving the pub, something which I always think is a nice customer service touch.

The large external drinking area and I like those little cabin things. This was part of a project during lockdown and the land was previously used as the pub’s car park.

There’s a food truck serving burgers, pizzas, wraps and loaded chips at weekends. The on-line reviews for the pub are nearly entirely positive, so they’re clearly getting a lot right here.

The menu and note the Lacon’s Brewery falcon on the wall.

This is an excellent pub, with friendly service, a clean environment, decent beer and low pricing. Lots of thought has been put into the interior decoration and it feels like a community pub trying to serve a wide range of customers.  Quite justifiably in the Good Beer Guide and a marvellous way to start the day’s study tour.