From the outside, it looks like the White Harte has returned to its roots, or at least the roots I imagine it must have had before becoming a student only zone when taken over by the It’s a Scream chain of pubs, roots befitting its high timbered ceilings and that extra ‘e’ in Harte.
Gone are the garish yellow hoardings and sign that were once here, and in its place the exterior has been painted a smart shade of dark grey, with the interior now wooden-floored and varnished rather than carpeted and dank, and a selection of ales on tap – Marston’s EPA, Bombardier and Black Sheep when I visited on Monday.
More changes are the smoking area being extended, two new screens added and wooden Scrabble tiles super-glued to the tables rather than table numbers. On the wall next to my window table (M, three points) were framed photographs and album covers of some of the linchpins of the Bristol music scene over the last few decades.
Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky are not often said in the same sentence as The Wurzels (except in the line-up to Bristol Zoo’s Walk of Fame) but they share wall space here in the White Harte.
All looks good so far doesn’t it, almost makes you want to step into this pub for the first time in years. If you do, take a look at the stunning oil painting near the pool table of the Bristol riots of 1831 by William Muller (1812-45), who used to live above the premises.
The aim is to make the White Harte appeal to both locals and students, and they have almost succeeded.
But look closer, and there are some tell-tale clues that not everything has changed from the White Harte’s most recent incarnation as a garish chain pub. That’s a yellow awning on the Park Street Avenue side. And see that subtle metal plaque by the front door, it reads, ‘A Scream pub’.
This is still an It’s a Scream pub in all but name, although actually the company who owns this pub, and also Yates’s and the Slug and Lettuce chains too, have renamed it to Scream. Expect a similar rebrand in Bristol’s other Scream pub soon, the Rising Sun on Gloucester Road.
We will see about their ambition to attract a new clientele when the university students return from their holidays. I am doubtful that anything will change and the students will still rule this particular pub like they did before it received a new lick of paint.
Despite a facelift, these are only superficial changes, and what from the outside looks like a promising new beginning turns out to be a real disappointment.
The White Harte, 54-58 Park Row, Bristol. 0117 929 2490.
