Escaping Leamington via The Cape of Good Hope

If you’ve ever stared down another night in Leamington or Coventry and felt somewhat disillusioned, it might be time to expand your horizons. And by expand, I mean go 17 minutes from campus to Warwick to visit a pub you will definitely want to brag about discovering: The Cape of Good Hope.

Most Warwick students, as far as I’m aware, never actually go to Warwick. Unlike Coventry or Leamington, the university has no tangible links to the town that shares its name. This means a different kettle of fish entirely. A calmer, middle-class kettle, a Smeg, if you will.

Our brave first step into Warwick’s pub scene was The Cape of Good Hope – a 19th-century boozer with a name that promises maritime adventure but, in reality, is just a short Uber ride away. The name comes from the housing estate road it sits on, which comes from… I don’t know.

Logistics-wise, it’s barely more effort than going to Leamington. If you split the £12 Uber four ways (going from campus), you’re basically paying what you would for the bus – except instead of arriving at the same classic pubs you’ve been exhausting all year, you’re in brand-new territory. An unexplored realm.

The garden overlooks a canal with some well-kept barges parked up. It makes a nice scene, something you’d find on an average postcard

When my friend first suggested ‘The Cape’, its location on a housing estate worried me. I was picturing the worst: a working men’s club with surprising and unpleasant karaoke. I was not in the mood for community. I wanted to drink in a place where I could be assured that no one I knew would be lurking. But The Cape isn’t like a men’s club at all. In fact, its clientele really ranges in age.

You do enter through the back, which is more of a nice club smoking area than a grand entrance, but the inside is classic pub comfort, complete with a few John Smith’s old boys and a bit of Harvester Chic, if I’m being harsh. Don’t let the look of The Cape’s back end worry you. My friend and I were so concerned that we asked the Uber to wait for us. The strange little caravan haunting the car park is a bit off-putting. However, power through. The result is worth it.

The real reason to go is the beer garden. Spacious enough that you’re not elbow-to-elbow with strangers but cosy enough to still feel lively. The garden overlooks a canal with some well-kept barges parked up. It makes a nice scene, something you’d find on an average postcard. There is a small, sheltered cabin, creatively named ‘Guinness Booth’, where you can snuggle up and watch the light on the canal waters, undisturbed by other pub-goers. The look of the garden here is something I haven’t found before in Leamington or Coventry. It also has a solid beer selection: your classics, a very nice Estrella, and a few wildcards that all hover around the £6 mark.

If you’re after somewhere different and private, and you want the ability to have an undisturbed conversation where you’re not shouting over loud music or bumping into people you’d rather not see, The Cape is definitely worth the Uber

From the garden, you can spy on the bar through a small window, where staff bustle about pouring pints. The inside weirdly feels like a portal into a warmer dimension, which is not suggested by the slightly industrial back end of the building. It’s the kind of place you can take a date, your parents, or just yourself with a book as a bit of an escape – all of them work here.

Not that it’s all serenity. I always find something to taint the experience. My last visit was sabotaged by a table of unpleasantly loud millennials aggressively flirting with each other. Finding this repulsive, we promptly retreated inside, away from the main bar area, to a seat that felt like a Premier Inn breakfast spot. This space came with the unexpected bonus of a live Untappd leaderboard for all the beers on tap. Beautiful.

If you’re after somewhere different and private, and you want the ability to have an undisturbed conversation where you’re not shouting over loud music or bumping into people you’d rather not see, The Cape is definitely worth the Uber. It’s got a bit of history, a nice atmosphere, and barges floating by.

Go once. Be pretentious. Pretend you’re the type who is cultured and wants to explore lands beyond Leamington and Coventry. Either way, it’s a nice trip out.