That doggie in the window

I like this pub. It is in a prime location near the Abbey and is as old as the square it sits in - early 18th century. Much of the oak panelled interior survives from when it was a private house and in the Winter it has a real log fire with armchairs to sit in and newspapers to read. It has a back yard which is overshadowed by the Italianate chimney of a Victorian laundry, and the hot water for it was conveyed via an ornamental aquaduct leading direct from the source of the hot springs of the adjacent Roman Baths.

This was the last time that the endless supply of piping hot water was used for anything before it discharges into the river a few hundred yards away - at a rate of thousands of gallons a day - but work is going on at the Abbey now to use it for underfloor heating. At last some use is being made of Bath's most famous natural resource.

The Crystal Palace pub is owned and run by Fullers, the oldest brewery in Britain. Fullers is a London company and runs its pubs a bit too corporately for my liking. I don't like pubs which require the bar staff to dress in black, for instance.

Fullers was recently sold to the Japanese brewers Asahi, so I don't know what 'improvements' are going to be made in the near future.

Another British company sold to a foreign (i.e. non-British) nation.