{"id":129121,"date":"2025-05-24T22:34:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T22:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/129121\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T22:34:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T22:34:17","slug":"the-seaside-pub-where-the-locals-drink-but-strangers-are-more-than-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/129121\/","title":{"rendered":"The seaside pub where the locals drink but ‘strangers’ are more than welcome"},"content":{"rendered":"

As well as live sport on the TV, it has a dartboard and cribThe Criterion pub (Image: Bristol Live)<\/p>\n

Welly wanging, egg dropping and Dorset knob lobbing – just three of the competitive sports on offer at The Criterion over the past year or so.<\/p>\n

Not inside the pub – health and safety comes first of course – but in the street outside and all to raise money for local charities and causes.<\/p>\n

Tucked away just off the seafront at Weston-super-Mare, behind the crazy golf course, The Criterion is thought by many to be one of the town\u2019s oldest pubs.<\/p>\n

Sepia Victorian images of Upper Church Road show The Criterion bearing signage for Bristol brewery Georges & Co, although these days it\u2019s a rare free house.<\/p>\n

Anthony and Karen Thomas have been running the pub for the past decade and they have truly stamped their personality on the place.<\/p>\n

This is very much a locals\u2019 local and although \u2018strangers\u2019 (usually daytrippers and people on holiday) are welcome, it\u2019s sometimes hard to clamber through the crowd to get a place at the bar as the rows of high stools are inevitably occupied by regulars there for the duration.<\/p>\n

A traditional, dog-friendly pub with well trodden carpets, high ceilings and dartboard, the walls are plastered with old photos of Weston-super-Mare and snapshots documenting customers over the years.<\/p>\n

The timeless interior of The Criterion(Image: Bristol Live)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an original Victorian fire in the front room, a smaller area on a second level, and high shelves are packed with knick-knacks including Toby jugs, china birds, cast iron scale weights and various work tools.<\/p>\n

On the bar, there are coin collections for the RNLI and Birnbeck Pier regeneration trust, local causes that give this seaside community pub a sense of place.<\/p>\n

Live sport is shown on large screens, and the pub also runs its out crib tournament, with participants competing for \u2018Maggie\u2019s shield\u2019.<\/p>\n

Under the current owners, The Criterion has built a strong local reputation for the range and quality of its real ales – on this occasion they included Dartmoor Jail Ale, St Austell Tribute and London Pride – with Thatcher\u2019s ciders, Asahi, Korev, Red Stripe, Guinness and Inch\u2019s also on draught.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s a pub with a sense of humour with plenty of laughter in the air on the afternoon I visited.<\/p>\n

An amusing sign behind the bar reminds staff that \u2018you don\u2019t have to be crazy to work here we\u2019ll train you!\u2019.<\/p>\n

They don’t tell you that on catering and hospitality college courses.<\/p>\n

The Criterion, 45 Upper Church Road, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 2DY.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As well as live sport on the TV, it has a dartboard and cribThe Criterion pub (Image: Bristol…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,786,4884,16,15,11158],"class_list":{"0":"post-129121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-food-and-drink","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-weston-super-mare"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114565196343455665","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}