About

What counts as a Bristol pub?

The obvious questions when coming up with a list of pubs in Bristol are: what counts as a pub? And what counts as Bristol?

We have gone with a quite broad definition a pub, which also includes lots of bars and other venues, but ultimately consider a pub to be:

Somewhere you can get a draught beer or cider
Is open to the public and you don't have to have a ticket or pay an entry fee (e.g. so not a gig venue or nightclub)
It's not weird not to get food (so not a restaurant)

For the definition of Bristol we've gone with the official boundary of the City of Bristol as published by the council. Confusingly this doesn't include some places on the northern or eastern periphery of Bristol like Filton or most of Kingswood, but does include Avonmouth. But, we had to start somewhere and this was an easy objective boundary to use.

These criteria are always subject to change, and we are the arbiters of the list. We are sorry if you don’t like it. The boundary especially could be expanded if people start getting close to "completing" the current one.

What counts as the same pub?

Things change. People change. Pubs change. They close, reopen under new management, change their name, change their vibe, or even move location.

We consider a pub to be the same pub if it remains in the same location and has the same vibe, even if the name changes. In those cases, ticks will carry over.

If the vibe changes significantly, or the pub relocates to new premises, we consider it a new pub and you’ll need to tick it off again.

How are scores calculated?

Explorer score

Your Explorer score reflects how unusual your pub visits are, rather than simply how many pubs you have visited. Pubs visited by fewer people count as rarer, and visiting rarer pubs raises your score.

We average the rarity of the pubs you have visited, with a small adjustment towards the overall average to keep the comparison fair across different-sized visit histories. We then compare that average with other users and show its percentile. For example, a score of 80 means your visits are more unusual than approximately 80% of scored users. Because it is a comparison with current users and visits, your score can change over time even when you do not add a new visit. Scores become available after five pub visits.

Pub popularity score

A pub's popularity score reflects how widely visited it is among established users. An established user is someone who has ticked off at least five pubs. We count how many established users have visited each pub, rank the pubs by that count, and show the result as a percentile. For example, a score of 80 means the pub has been visited by more established users than approximately 80% of pubs.

We only publish a pub's score after at least five established users have visited it, so very small numbers are not presented as a meaningful ranking. The ranking can change as people record more visits or as the pub list changes.

Get in touch

Got feedback? Questions? Noticed anywhere that's missing, closed, changed name or doesn't meet the criteria? Email [email protected].

The proprietors

Built by Alex Norton. Illustrations by Rosalie Hoskins. Vibes and social media by Adam Becket, Liv Rubene and Lottie Norton.