Choose a property near a pub and drink to a post-lockdown summer

For what seems like an age, the soul-feeding experience of sitting outside a pub, enjoying a cool drink on a warm day – untroubled by thoughts of masks or social distancing – has been a distant memory, but the efficacy of the jabs means that it might just become a reality again for millions of us this summer. Here’s to that!

If that does happen, then the numberless people who live near a good pub will be able once again to make full use of one of their property’s more enviable selling points. What’s more, househunters looking for a new home right now could be among the happy ranks of these “over-the-roaders”, who count their local pub as a near neighbour.

There are, of course, hundreds of pubs and bars across our district and surrounding areas, so it’s not hard to find a property a skittle’s toss away from one.

The following three have been chosen primarily for the quality of the pub they’re close to – they’re all very popular and serve excellent beer.

In Ripon, 2 Bondgate Green is on the end of a period terrace of brick-built houses, right next to one of the road bridges crossing the River Skell. It has four bedrooms, two shower rooms, open-plan kitchen-diner, utility room, two reception rooms and a storage room. Outside, there’s a fifth of an acre of garden with a range of outbuildings and garages.

It’s also just down the road from The Water Rat, which threebestrated.com has named as one of Ripon’s top three pubs and which, serving Theakton’s, Rudgate and two changing beers, has just been included in Camra’s Good Beer Guide 2022.

What’s more, 2 Bondgate Green itself used to be a pub, the Brewer’s Arms.

In Harrogate, Flat 5, 9 Cheltenham Parade is a duplex flat that has just been redecorated. It has two bedrooms – one of them on the second floor – a bathroom, kitchen and living room, as well as a storage cupboard and small landing area currently used as a study space.

Located right in the town centre, it’s just opposite the Inn, which was for decades the well-known Harrogate Brasserie but was bought in 2017 by Timothy Taylor’s and, now Casque Marque accredited, has also been included in Camra’s 2022 guide.

Up Nidderdale, 2A High Street could not be more centrally located in Pateley Bridge. The house has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room and, on the ground floor, a very irregularly-shaped lounge and a separate retail unit, which in 2014 had planning consent for conversion to residential use, although this has now lapsed.

Handily, the property is a very short walk home from the Crown Inn, a family-run, 17th-century, Grade II listed, Casque Marque accredited pub with restaurant and rooms.