The Raven

The Raven, on Queen Street, is one of central Bath's few genuine free houses — independent of any brewery or pub company, which in a city of tied and branded pubs is the whole point of it. Roderick Humphris has run it since the mid-2000s, and it trades on well-kept real ale and its own pies rather than any theme, holding a long place in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide and expanding into the building next door in 2022. Two floors, no music, proper beer and a pie: an old-fashioned town pub doing the old things well. Go up the cobbled street and find it.