February 18, 2012
A relaxed, ordinary looking local with an extraordinary beer selection. A sign on the gable end of the Hop Pole proclaims that this is “Aylesbury’s permanent beer festival”, and indeed it is. We last visited in early December on the weekend when the brewery shop was officially opened and the new microbrewery launched. A great range of ales was being served, as on previous festival weekends, from casks set up on trestle tables in the room at the back which is accessed through the shop, now smelling strongly of fresh paint. The main pub is a basic double fronted building with bay windows and a fireplace on each of the side walls of what would originally have been the two main rooms, now knocked through. There are bare floorboards, wood panelling up to dado level and pump clips around the walls. Pleasingly for me, one was for a beer named Boadicea. The location, just out of town off the ring road and opposite a large car showroom, is where you’d expect to find a rather ordinary local but the Hope Pole is actually quite special. It has 11 or 12 hand pumps in the main pub and the festival weekends make an excursion well worth the trip. Local and visitors alike rub shoulders quite comfortably and they serve reasonably priced burgers and other meals. (Last visited 4 December 2011).

March 16, 2006 [ Updated April 24, 2006 ]
The location is pretty poor - on a busy main road opposite a car dealership and next to an industrial estate. Inside the look of the pub is hardly authentic; lots of stripped wood (as Chris notes), and the only aged feature is the fireplace which is in a bad state anyway. It was empty when we entered (afternoon), so I cannot really comment on the clientele. The seating and tables are oddly spaced, clumped too closely together around the walls with a large empty space in the middle. The keg lineup is fairly good - Staropramen and Budvar, with a couple of other foreign beers and a keg cider that didn’t seem to be from a national producer. There are ten hand pumps, one was off when I arrived, and another went off when I asked for some. Of the eight remaining there was a single Vale, two Titanics, two Bath and a few others. I sampled Bath Spa, Titanic Black Ice, Titanic Captain Smith and Vale Best, but all were served too warm and not in good condition. The bottled selection looked pretty good, a few standard Belgians (Chimay, etc), Anchor Steam and a few others, all in the display fridges behind the bar, but it was hard to see what there was without there being a list. The food menu looked fairly standard, but I didn’t eat. I will return another time, but it didn’t impress as much as I thought it might.

December 28, 2005 [ Updated June 10, 2008 ]
This formerly run down locals’ boozer on the outskirts of Aylebury has recently been bought and refurbished at significant expense by Vale Brewery as their premier outlet (they now own five pubs). Seems to be aiming for strpped wood style with cafe/bar tendencies. Early days yet but, on a quiet afternoon between Christmas and New Year, it wasn’t exactly cosy. Plus it seemed to have retained the old clientele who were lined up on stools along the bar (thus making access difficult) drinking lager, albeit Budvar or Staropramen rather than Carling or whatever they would have drunk in the old days. Whether Vale attract the sort of custom they need to make a success of the ale house concept remains to be seen. Ten handpumps, although two are tucked away in the back bar and weren’t in use on my visit. But as there’s no list of beers on display, you’ll need to check those pumps to make sure you don’t miss something. I was expecting a full range of Vale beers, but there was only one on offer. The rest were micros from around the country - two Beartown, Brewsters, Shardlow, Mauldons, Millstone and Dark Star. Also Leffe Blonde and Artois Bock on draught. Couldn’t really see what bottles they had on offer. A welcome addition for the area, but the overall experience was not quite as impressive as I’d hoped. No food being served when i was there.