Every Durham Pub and Taproom We Recommend, Compared

Two posts in, and the obvious question is: which one do I actually go to?

Here’s the lot in one table. The craft trail has the full write-ups for the beer-led places, and the other pubs post covers the rest. This is for when you want the answer without the reading.

Read this bit first

This is not every pub in Durham. It’s the eighteen we’ve been to enough times or know to have an opinion about, and would send/or not a friend to. There are plenty of others, some of which are probably very good.

The scores are mine. They’re out of ten and they measure one thing: how well the craft beer is kept and how good the range is. Nothing else. A 5 can still be a lovely pub — the “go for” column is doing as much work as the number.

We’re not the court of last resort. We live seven miles out, we go often, we pay for our own drinks, and we have no arrangement with any of these places — no free rounds, no paid placements. But this is one household’s shortlist, not an official ranking. For balance: in CAMRA’s Durham City Pub of the Year vote for 2023, the top three were Ye Old Elm Tree first, the Station House second and the Victoria third. I’d flip the first two. The branch has more voters than I do, and they may well be right.

The table

Eighteen places, September 2026. Verdicts are ours; the scores out of ten are in the individual write-ups. On a phone the Food and Dogs columns drop away — scroll sideways for the rest.

Why verdicts and not scores here. Every one of these places is scored out of ten in its own write-up, on the craft trail or in the other pubs post. Repeating the numbers here would say the same thing twice and imply a league table across places that are not doing the same job. A verdict answers the only question this page exists for: do I go? Scoring Whitechurch on beer would be beside the point — it is a café, and a very good one.

Two rows say something different. The Hop Knocker hasn’t been scored yet rather than being unscoreable — I’ve been, I rate it, I just haven’t sat down and put a number on it. And The Dun Cow has one bad half-pint against it from spring 2026 and nothing since, which isn’t enough to score a pub on. Both notes are in the other pubs post.

Blank prices mean we haven’t written them down properly yet. We’d rather leave a gap than guess — they’re going in as we collect them.

Which one, though

Best pint in Durham: The Station House. It isn’t close, and at £4.50 it is also the cheapest pub with craft beer in the city.

Cheapest pint of the lot: Hill Island, at £4 a pint and £2 a half — but that is a brewery, not a pub. Straight from the source in Fowler’s Yard, gluten free and vegan friendly. The catch is that they open the first, second and fourth Saturday of the month and nothing else.

Best range: The Holy GrAle, on keg. Twelve taps that genuinely change, plus four fridges.

Best building: three answers, depending what you mean. Ye Old Elm Tree is the oldest — 1600s. The Victoria Inn has the interior that actually survived, which is rarer — and in September 2026 The European Bar Guide placed it 55th in its Top 100 Bars in Europe. The Market Tavern is the most historically important and the one I’d least like to drink in.

Best if it’s sunny: Ye Old Elm Tree’s garden, or Whitechurch’s veranda if it’s still morning, The Library’s balcony over the river, the Swan & Three Cygnets by the water.

Best if you want a night out rather than a pint: The Curious Mr Fox for cocktails, The Library for a student atmosphere, The Angel for live rock music.

Best Sunday lunch: Whitechurch, £18 to £20 a head. We ate it on 13 September 2026 — beef rump served pink, pork shoulder with proper crackling, portions that make sides pointless. Slow service and a service charge on the bill; go anyway. The write-up is here.

Best start to the day: Whitechurch — coffee, a proper sandwich, and a veranda to sit on before anything else opens.

Best if you’ve got an hour before a train: The Waiting Room on Platform 2, or the Station House at the bottom of the bank if you’ve got a bit longer.

Best if you’ve got a car and an afternoon: The Hop Knocker, out at Gilesgate. Wednesday to Sunday only after 4pm.

One I’d check first: The Dun Cow. See the notes in the other pubs post.

Where they all are

Eighteen pins, five clusters. If you’re standing somewhere in Durham and want to know what’s within a few minutes’ walk, this is the section to read.

Every pin is clickable. Open the map full size — it works on a phone, so you can carry it round with you.

Crossgate — over Framwellgate Bridge, west of the centre, and the densest three in the city.
The Holy GrAle (57) · The Angel Inn (53) · Ye Old Elm Tree (12). All within about fifty metres of each other.

Worth knowing before you set off: those three sit on the slope of the hill. Coming from the Market Place you cross Framwellgate Bridge and then climb, and it is a proper climb — steeper than it looks on a map. Fine on the way out, less fine on the way back, and worth thinking about if anyone in the party would rather not do hills.

North Road and the station.
The Station House (under the viaduct) · Head of Steam (3 Reform Place, just off North Road) · The Waiting Room (Platform 2, on the station itself).

The peninsula — Market Place, Saddler Street and the riverside.
Market Tavern (27 Market Place) · The Library (46 Saddler Street) · Hill Island Brewery (7 Fowler’s Yard, off Back Silver Street) · The Curious Mr Fox (Unit 35a, The Riverwalk) · The Drunken Duck (91 Claypath, five minutes up from the Market Place).

Over Elvet Bridge.
Swan & Three Cygnets (on the bridge itself) · The Half Moon Inn (86 New Elvet) · The Dun Cow (37 Old Elvet) · The Court (Court Lane, by the prison) · Whitechurch (29 Church Street Head) · The Victoria Inn (86 Hallgarth Street, up the hill).

Out at Gilesgate.
The Hop Knocker (32 Marshall Terrace), past the retail parks. This is the one you drive or bus to.

Full addresses and opening hours are at the foot of the craft trail post and the other pubs post.

And the honest caveat

Every one of these scores is one bloke’s opinion, formed over twenty years of drinking in Durham and about fifteen years of actually paying attention.

Beer quality moves. Cellars change hands, landlords leave, ranges get rotated. The Half Moon was good once and the Drunken Duck was better than good. The Court has been open a fortnight and could go either way.

So take the scores as a starting point rather than gospel, and if you find something’s changed, tell us — we live seven miles away and we’ll go and check.

Also on Durham: how two breweries taught me I like pale ale and the County Durham brewery trail.