Auld Hoose, North Berwick

Built 1896 (date on the top front of the building), this town centre pub has a little altered high-ceilinged bar with a spirit barrel gantry but is now opened-up having lost two separate rooms in recent years. The public bar retains its original three-bay mirrored gantry with eight carved pillars having decorative capitals and six old spirit barrels perched on the top, The three water taps on the bar counter no longer work, unusually, there is another on the left-hand side of the gantry. Most lower shelves have been replaced by fridges. At a quiet time, if you can get permission to look from within the servery you can see the pipework that used to come down from the room above to the spirit taps on the gantry – the barrels were filled by bottles in later years. Other old features include the two tall front windows with pictorial etched panels, panelled walls to two-thirds height and a good cornice. The bar counter was replaced in the early 1980s. The left-hand side lounge was originally two rooms and had been much modernised but is now opened-up to the main bar – the hatch with sliding window that served the room is still there on the left-hand side of the servery. In 2008 the small little-used darts room situated directly behind the servery served by a hatch was converted into a kitchen. In recent years parts of the vestibule entrance have been removed leaving only a L-shaped low partition.