The Garden Gate
Whitfield Place, Hunslet, Leeds
simon jenkins
A MILE out of town, well south of the river and way past the Armouries, surrounded by low-rise offices and seventies housing, lies Leeds’ most beautiful pub.
If it were in Briggate, or in a fashionable suburb – or even close enough to the city centre to be part of the regular crawl – it would be lauded like Whitelocks and the Adelphi, Chapel Allerton’s Regent, Kirkstall’s Cardigan, and prized yet more highly. Tourists would flock to gape at this working museum and try a pint of traditional hand-pulled mild, Nikons clicking like grasshoppers. Guide books would have it on the cover.
But the Garden Gate hangs in downtown Hunslet, at the end of a concrete cul-de-sac, and hard-up to a charmless red-brick job centre. It looks lost in its surroundings, abandoned, bewildered by change, though the community it serves now is essentially the same one it catered for in Victorian times. The houses are newer, the pace of life a little quicker.And it thrives. Not by being old, or beautiful, nor by having the most amazing unspoiled interior you’ll find anywhere, but by continuing to serve the people of Hunslet, and serve them well.
This hasn’t always been the case. Not every landlord has treated the place with the respect it deserves, nor ensured its customers did so. Incredible as it seems now, even the city fathers once plotted to flatten the place as part of the seventies redevelopment of the area. That crass move was resisted, and led to the Garden Gate winning Grade II listed status, which has underwritten its long-term survival.
Still better news is that Punch Taverns, which inherited the Garden Gate as part of its takeover of the old Tetley empire, and oversaw several decades of gradual decline, has now sold the pub back into the community. For Leeds Brewery, whose city outlets the Pin Bar, the Brewery Tap and the Midnight Bell have each made an impact on the urban circuit, this is their first out-of-town venture. For Hunslet, it’s the clearest sign yet that their pub is in safe hands.
It is a ceramic palace, from the ornate brown and cream tiled exterior, to the greens of the pub’s long central corridor which divides little snugs, nooks and crannies, from the two main drinking areas which are either side of a central bar.
The corridor is itself a gem, tiled from floor to ceiling, save for polished mahogany panels and panes of etched and decorated glass. The floor is an ornate tiled mosaic; a tiled archway arcs over the corridor at one point.
Wood, mirrors and glass predominate in each room, though it’s the ceramic which makes this place truly special. No-one seems to know for sure, but it’s only a part-romantic notion that these tiles were Burmantofts Faience, a relic of the time when the east Leeds suburb was famed for its pottery.
There has been a pub here since 1833, and it was known as the Garden Gate from 1849, probably a reference to the nearby market gardens which were a source of significant local income at the time. The present building – a perfect example of late Victorian and early Edwardian architecture – dates from 1902, when pottery production at Burmantofts was still in full swing.
Even the cellar is tiled. It’s untidy now, gleaming Leeds Brewery barrels side-by-side with heaps of detritus, accumulated over the careless years of decay. The new team are working through it, slowly.
In these bowels of white-faced brick is glimpsed another past; a time when every pub and club, factory and church fielded teams of men who carried their proud names across the whitewash. The Garden Gate had a fearsome reputation for rugby league. One can imagine great hulks of working men, stirred to the cause and striding into battle, local honour at stake.
Beyond the barrels, beyond the heaps of junk, arched doorways open onto abandoned changing rooms, a forgotten shrine to these local heores. A leather table, where once a masseur would have pummelled players back into shape, stands forlorn in its midst.
The showers, the communal bath, are all still there, relics of this glorious past. Ghosts must hang here, echoes of these great men, stepping through the fine hot mist of the showers, nursing their wounds and cursing still.
Their sporting museum lies derelict, awaiting some love and attention, the new owners having prioritised the core business of getting customers through the doors. So after a brief closure and a heavy-duty deep clean, the Garden Gate re-opened on July 4.
Where were once just lager fonts are now handpulls dispensing Leeds Best, Leeds Pale and Midnight Bell – the wonderful trinity of real ales which have gained such a hold on the affections of the city’s drinkers these past few years. This was a warm Sunday evening, and the sharp and citric Leeds Pale was the perfect antidote to the muggy weather.
It’s rare to be served with a bad pint of Leeds beer, and perhaps that’s because the brewery’s spies are everywhere, and always thirsty. Scarcely do I visit one of their pubs without bumping into at least one of them, like here, where baby-faced brewer Venkatash Iyer is posing as a Carlsberg drinker, hoping not to be spotted.
He introduces me to manager Adam Browett, who comes here as an alumnus of all the company’s four previous sites, three pubs and the brewery too. It was at the Brewery Tap that he met girlfriend Ciara Metherell, and the couple are now setting up home at the Garden Gate.
Ciara’s just finishing the quiz, so Adam comes over to chat. At 22, he’s one of the younger landlords on the circuit. Yet he has a clear idea of what it will take to take the Garden Gate back to the heart of the community.
“It’s a balance,” he tells me. “It’s about serving good food, keeping the bar prices down - certainly cheaper than in town – but keeping the troublemakers out.” He’s mature enough to know he must learn to walk before breaking into a run. So future plans – a snooker room upstairs, a beer festival – remain on hold.
Prices aren’t nailed down as low as some of the local competition, but Adam and Leeds Brewery are putting faith in quality fare and friendly yet firm management as the formula that allows the Garden Gate to swing once more.
It deserves to succeed.
FACTFILE:
Name: The Garden Gate
Hosts: Adam Browett and Ciara Metherell
Type: Ultra-traditional suburban alehouse
Opening Hours: Noon-3pm and 5-11pm Mon-Thur; noon-3pm and 5pm-midnight Fri; noon-midnight Sat; noon-11pm Sun
Beers: Leeds Pale (£2.50), Leeds Best (£2.60), Midnight Bell (£2.70), Tetley’s Dark Mild (£2.50), plus one guest beer currently Two Halves (£2.50). Carlsberg (£2.60), San Miguel (£3.30), Beck’s (£2.70), Kaiserdom Pilsner (£2.35), Erdinger (£3.80). Guinness (£3), Gaymer’s cider (£2.60), Gaymer’s pear cider (£2.70).
Wines: Small selection
Food: Pub meals served until 9pm daily
Disabled: Welcomed, reasonably straightforward access, though slightly cramped inside.
Children: Welcomed, half-portions of meals available
Entertainment: Quiz Sun, games machines, Sky Sports TV coming soon.
Beer garden: Some outdoor tables to front
Parking: On-street parking nearby
Telephone: 0113 270 0379
Website: www.leedsbrewery.co.uk/
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