Its busy, even buzzy, but a corporate makeover has deprived this York inn of what distinctive personality it ever had
Historically, the beer garden at Judges Lodging where you drink under a gorgeous canopy of trees beside ivy-clad walls seemed relatively off-grid, a redoubt from Yorks tourist hordes. If that was ever true, it isnt now.
Recently revamped by its latest owner, Thwaites, this 21-bedroom Georgian townhouse is now a labyrinth of spaces. The vaulted cellar bar has been overhauled, a dining room rather crammed in, and a cask ale bar opened: Thwaites beers are pretty dull, but its seasonal lemongrass Pure Shores and Trebooms citrussy Yorkshire Sparkle were OK. That cask bar then leads out onto a rear terrace decked out in swish, low-slung furniture, a somewhat incongruous slice of Mediterranean beach bar in the centre of historic York.
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