The majesty of The Sovereign

If you live on campus or, like me, live in Canley, you have probably noticed that we have a lack of pubs. Of course, we have the campus ones, but if you are looking for a non-SU-affiliated establishment or somewhere a bit cheaper than Varsity, you aren’t spoilt for choice. In Canley, there are two pubs. One that Warwick students more commonly use is the Phantom Coach, and another, which is a bit niche, is The Sovereign.

For this article, I wanted to focus on The Sovereign. It recently got a bit of stick on The Warwick Tea for being a bit ‘Reform-y’ with someone calling it ‘part of the problem’. But I do actually believe this pub is the university’s best ‘local’.

Only a 20-minute walk from campus and with pints starting from around £3.50, it offers an alternative, cheap drinking option for students. And for sports fans, The Sovereign is the only pub in Canley (and the closest to the university) that shows sports. Ever since Fusion shut on campus, I have found myself frequently visiting The Sovereign to watch the weekend Premier League games and other major sporting events.

If you go in on a Friday night, they have a DJ, and the pub becomes strangely clubby. You can expect to hear classic tunes like Sweet Caroline being remixed into club music and many R&B classics

But the reason I love The Sovereign so much is its sheer randomness. One day, I walked in, and it was decorated with England flags for no reason. Then, when I returned a month later, the England flags had been replaced with Irish ones (a bit ironic for a place called The Sovereign). Once, there was even a custom-made County Canley Irish flag! And now, when I last went in a few days ago, there were no flags at all. It may have been that it was trying to convert to an Irish pub until it realised its name means it literally can’t, but still, the flag changes felt weird.

If you go in on a Friday night, they have a DJ, and the pub becomes strangely clubby. You can expect to hear classic tunes like Sweet Caroline being remixed into club music and many R&B classics. The most peculiar thing I’ve seen in there was a middle-aged bloke trying to unwrap a Labubu and getting it stuck in the plastic case somehow! Of course, he was trying to give the thing to his child, but just seeing a man of his age unbox a Labubu in the pub felt so random.

The Sovereign is also ideal for me now that Fusion has closed because it is the only place in the area with dartboards. As a big fan of darts, it has been a struggle to find places to play that aren’t the Graduate, which you need to book out with a society for. Fortunately, The Sovereign offers two dartboards with surrounds, lighting, and an electronic dart counter. To make it even better, the boards are located in the corner of the pub away from the main seating area, so you can lock in and throw your darts.

It is the closest spot to campus where you can play darts and watch sports, and it is so much more affordable than the University’s pubs

The boards are also always mostly empty, so I have always been able to find a free board to play on. On a side note, the pub also has a pool table. However, this is always very busy, and since there are so many pool tables in our Student Union, there’s no reason to go to The Sovereign just for the pool table.

I think The Warwick Tea submission that dissed The Sovereign failed to see its benefits to Warwick students. It is the closest spot to campus where you can play darts and watch sports, and it is so much more affordable than the University’s pubs. And since it’s so unknown to students, it’s never rammed, like the Spoons in Leam, so you can be sure to always get served fairly quickly and find a spot to sit down. So, the next time you are looking to go for a pint with your mates or want to watch a game in the pub, give The Sovereign a try.