The Bag of Nails, Bristol

Since the internet happened, the world seems to have gone cat crazy. There are websites devoted to humorous cat pictures, youtube is stuffed with entertaining cat compilations and there are thousands of cat related groups lurking on Facebook. The world's cat obsession has lead to several "cat cafe" establishments and, as highlighted extensively in both physical and social media last week, there is now a cat pub.

The Bag of Nails, on St. George's Road in Bristol, isn't really a cat pub, it's just a pub where the cats living upstairs are allowed in the bar however that has not stopped the customers pouring in to see the feline inhabitants, and as I was in St. Austell at the weekend for the beer festival I thought I'd pop in on the way home to see what the pub is actually like.

It was a mild but rainy Sunday afternoon as we approached the pub. Two signs adorned the windows, one temporarily banning dogs due to "pub kittens in training" and the other advising that "Idiot pub crawls" were not welcome. Despite being an advocate of the honourable art of pub crawling, in this case I agree. Extremely drunk people and animals don't really mix and besides, the pub isn't exactly big. It has a long bar on the left with tables arranged opposite, the seating area expands to the width of the pub at the back but space is still somewhat limited by the toilets, whose doors both opened outwards. The decor was a hotch-potch of different faded wallpapers but it certainly had charm, old children's toys and books decorated the various flat surfaces and an old vinyl record player was busy supplying the pub with music. One of the ceiling's supporting pillars listed pub rules, some serious but many tongue-in-cheek. Beer selection was chiefly real ale and quality bottles with a good range of styles available and for those that fancied it (and could find a table) there were an abundance of board games littered about for people to play. The pub was busy and had a lively atmosphere and I liked it as soon as I walked in - and then I saw a cat.

It slunk along the bar, weaving between pint glasses and punters hands, installed itself in a shallow cardboard box at the end of the bar and fell asleep. A more detailed look around revealed more felines, a mother with a kitten snoozed near the pillar at the end and a young black cat explored the boxes of wine at the back of the bar. A longer haired brown-ish tabby was on duty investigating the people sitting at the tables, pausing occasionally to receive some welcome petting. The cats seemed a fact of life in the Bag, most people didn't expend a lot of fuss on them or seek them out apart from the tourists (like us!). They also seemed quite content to be there - none of them seemed stressed and if they got fed up with your attention they just walked off and went somewhere else.  It was nice and relaxing drinking a pint while stroking a cat, and a couple of hours flew past - I could have spent many hours there enjoying the excellent beer and the company of cats but alas, I was still 170 miles away from home, and sadly no-one has invented a transporter yet! A last note should go to the staff, who were exceedingly friendly and the landlord, who seemed slightly unhinged yet was an engaging character who was happy to chat about the cats and the pub for as long as he wasn't serving the customers!

If you don't mind cats and are in Bristol, you can't go wrong with the Bag of Nails. Without the cats it would be a superb pub, their presence makes it a quite fantastic place which I hope to visit again before too long


The Details:
The Bag of Nails
141 St. George's Road
Hotwells
Bristol
BS1 5UW