This is the UK’s best pub for cider drinkers, according to CAMRA

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has announced the UK’s best pub for cider drinkers — a converted Blockbuster in Bournemouth.

Serving more than 20 ciders from around the country, the Firkin Shed is a “quirky, friendly, family-run micro-pub” – the first of its kind in Dorset – based in a former Blockbuster video shop.

Using a shed for the bar, customers can choose from six constantly-changing cask ales and around 20 ciders from across the country. Beers, meanwhile, are served straight from the cellar.

CAMRA said locals loved the pub’s “cosy atmosphere, good music and strict no mobile phone policy.”

The boozer is one of a growing number of sites which enforce a no-phones policy. Punters are fined £1 if they are seen using them, which is donated to the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance service. However, taking photos is fine.

The National Cider Pub competition, now in its 13th year, aims to raise awareness of the UK’s cider industry beyond mainstream brands, and awards pubs that sell drinks made by independent and smaller producers. It also marks the beginning of CAMRA’s Cider Month promotion, with a number of events taking place around the UK throughout October.

Paul Gray, who co-owns the pub with his wife Lisa, said they “actively buy from traditional cider makers and small producers, many of whom have cultivated their own orchards and share the same ethos. We hope that has been reflected in this award and that our success has shown there is a place for real cider in all pubs.”

They Grays beat three finalists to win the accolade; Cricketers Arms, St. Helens, the Blythe Hill Tavern, London, the Cellar Door, Newport, Wales, and the Cricketers Arms in St Helens, which also made it into CAMRA’s overall Pub of the Year 2018 shortlist.

“This year’s winner has only been open for three years, which is a great achievement,” Sarah Newson, the competition’s organiser, said.

“Paul Gray and his team have done brilliantly to convert a former video shop into a national award-winning and very popular micropub in such a short time.”