please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Wonderful multi-roomed pub a few minutes away from Micklegate, but enjoyed by discerning drinkers of all ages. A small selection of ales - the regulars being Taylor's Golden Best and Tiger. The Golden Best was in superb form. No food, but you can buy home made pork pies and sometimes there is loaves of bread and eggs at bargain prices.
No trip to York would be complete without calling in.
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I was very pleased to stumble across this place having heard good things but not being quite sure where it was. It looks a little uninviting from the outside but inside is very welcoming. A musician was preparing to play and 4 ales were on including Yorkshire Sparke which I enjoyed. As it turns out, it is close to the station and town centre so easily reachable on any York trip.
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8pm on a Sunday evening and the pub is busy with plenty going on. The 2 small snugs are empty, the back room has a folk band playing with every seat taken while the main bar room has a group of fellas playing dominoes and several groups of young and mature adults chatting and enjoying their ales.
7 cask hand pumps on the bar with 6 different ales, I had several pints of Treboon Breweries Tambourine Man @ 3.9%, a very decently kept & poured ale.
The Golden Ball is well known for being York’s first community owned pub, meaning it’s owned by locals, this is very evident as the pub feels like a community centre more than a pub and it’s excellent.
All rooms have their charm, the main bar area has lovely original decorative tiles below the bar and a fascinating North Yorkshire map as wallpaper on the back wall. The snugs are untouched have been restored and one of them has a bar billiards table.
The Golden Ball is a bobby dazzler of a pub with a real community feel.
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Nice local pub with plenty of decent ales on and a selection of various topped pork pies to accompany them.
anonymous - 16 Feb 2015 21:03 |
Great atmosphere in this corner local close to the Wall. Choice of about 7 ales on I think and an historically interesting bar to study whilst supping.
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Huh! Sadly the bar manager was relieved of duties after 6 months probation and there's been some most odd redecoration ideas. The traditional Thursday evening music spot has been scrapped and the opening time has reverted to 5pm
So, a coop idea has not proved so wonderful!
Visit and make up your own mind though. Slip Inn for me though peeps!
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Huh! Sadly the bar manager was relieved of duties after 6 months probation and there's been some most odd redecoration ideas. The traditional Thursday evening music spot has been scrapped and the opening time has reverted to 5pm
So, a coop idea has not proved so wonderful!
Visit and make up your own mind though. Slip Inn for me though peeps!
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Now open 4pm daily...midday at weekends. Five revolving guest ales...often Salamander, Ilkley, Great Newsome...good Yorkshire ales!
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I think you'll find tiger on regularly as several of the regulars love it!
Just FYI, opening times for the season (I just drink there, but as the new management coop haven't got the website up, here goes
27th 4-11.30
28th 12-11.30
29th 12-11.30
30th 12-11
New years eve 3-1am
ne'er day 5-11
Wed 4-11
Thurs 4-11.30
Fri 4-11.30
Alternating music Thursdays and all-comers guitars, violins, banjos, accordians...Sundays
Enjoy Peeps.
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Superb pub - hope it continues to be so. Best wishes for the new management. Please keep this pub unspoilt and excellent! One beer plea - make sure Tiger is always on. A wonderful beer you hardly see around York (and in my exile of London) otherwise.
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Well worth a visit under new cooperative management. Deuchars (note it's dewchars, not doichars...with the ch as in loch!) and Bombardier removed in favour of two more revolving ales (that's 5 now + Tiger and John Smith cask) The latter still popular with some long-standing locals.
New Golden Ball website on its way.
Place has a delightful atmosphere.
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Reopened after one day closure as a community-run cooperative...well worth support: a true local. Keep an eye on opening times: 5pm weekdays, all day weekends...at the moment!
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Friendly locals pub with sports on tv. Deuchars 3.10�.
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Community share issue for GB to be launched on July 2nd.
After then check out goldenballyork.co.uk for info
Got a mention in the Guardian money yesterday.
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A proper pub in every sense of the word! Four rooms off the main entrance corridor and a single bar with a good selection of ales - they manage to get a few local brews in as well as their standard range of "national" cask beers (e.g. John Smiths Cask/Bombardier which I imagine the pubco insist they sell). Anyway it is a classic of its type and well worth finding. It even has a bar billiards table which must be a rarity in these parts. Very much a community pub but welcoming to "strangers" who make the effort to find it.
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still very much on song...committed to two rotating unusual beers (for York at least) Wylam, Goose eye, Great Newsome, Ilkley and recently an excellent Maxim dark ale...Rumour has it that they may have Old Spot on board from Cullingworth! Watch out for a new, regularly updated website.
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This is what I call a real local pub, with a glazed brick facade. The Golden Ball were serving Salamander Brewing Company �Golden Salamander� - �3.05, the increasingly ubiquitous Wells-Young�s �Bombardier�, Everard�s �Tiger� Northumberland Brewery �Black Dog� and Timothy Taylor �Golden Best� - �3.00.
Ceramic nick-nacks abounded in groups of three around the periphery of the Bar Room � the flying ducks, beloved of Hilda Ogden, corpulent ladies, frogs, chickens, Guinness toucans, pigs 7 swallows.
A superb, unspoilt Victorian pub with a glazed brick bar � 8/10
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Stunning unspoilt community pub with an excellent range of beers. I had a stunning pint of TT Landlord. It's slightly off the beaten track but well worth tracking down.
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A little gem.
Always worth a visit when I'm in York.
Great choice of good Real Ales (Great pint of Tiger bitter).
Lovely beer garden when the sun shines.
One of York's top 5 five pubs.
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Despite living in York for the best part of 30 years, I'd never been to the Golden Ball before last Saturday, despite hearing nothing but good things. Maybe it was because it's on the other side of town from me, and slightly off the beaten track ... I don't know. But yet again I've unearthed another fantastic pub to add to my growing list of fine establishments in York.
I don't feel the need to elaborate further on the layout / style of the pub, as it is pretty much as the other (positive) reviews have stated. Both interior and exterior seating areas were clean and comfy, the bar well stocked (I enjoyed a couple of pints of a well kept guest from the Northumbria Brewery, "Highway Robbery" - quite an appropriate name for a brew given the current high fuel prices, thankfully it was excellent and had no traces of petrol !). The clientelle and staff were friendly, and there was a good atmosphere.
Although at first glance (mine certainly so), the Golden Ball appears to be off the beaten track, it is within a five minute walk of some other excellent hostelries such as the Swan and Slip in Clementhorpe, the Rook & Gaskill in Lawrence Street, and closest of all, the Ackorne in St Martins Lane. Looks like my next "Friday Five" are sorted !
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According to the Ouse Boozer, Fozz is holding a beer festival April 1-3...4.30 Friday, Noon Sat and Sun.
Beers from Ilkley, Naylors, Brown Cow, Salamander, Goose Eye, Great Newsome and other Yorkshire goodies + BBQ Sat, Sun.
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Good stuff...some lovely guest ales, Goose eyes and Great Newsome, a beer fest 1-3 April...Yorkshire ales, including Selby, so it goes!
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After a long walk on icy pavements found that it doesn't open until 5 on weekdays!
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After a long walk on icy pavements found that it doesn't open until 5 on weekdays!
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Utterly brilliant pub. Never disappoints. If you are the type of drinker who likes O'Neill's and Slug and Lettuce, stay away and don't spoil this amazing place. Anyone with soul and taste should head for the Golden Ball. You won't want to leave.
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Great pub with a nice atmosphere and great beers.Pleasant staff behind bar.
Beer garden was lovely on a Nice summer Saturday afternoon.
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Visited this pub after reading previous reviews and not let down at all. 6 immaculate cask ales, nice beer garden and friendly welcome to us quite obvious tourists...
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Situated in a residential area of York close to the city walls, the Golden Ball is a fine traditional multi-roomed street corner local that is on CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.
An unusual layout consists of 4 rooms including one sports "snug" room with plenty of sporting memorabilia - signed caricatures of Darren Gough, Brian Lara and a photo of Brian Close's 1969 Yorkshire County Cricket side for example - and a bar billiards table. There's another unusual snug immediately on the right by the entrance corridor. The bar counter is in a room at the back of the pub and can only be accessed from the entrance on the other street.
A fine glazed brick exterior still bears the branding of John Smith's Tadcaster Ales and Stout. Also of note externally is an unused door which was formerly the entrance to the Jug and Bottle Department.
6 real ales were on - Deuchars IPA, Bombardier, TT Landlord, Everards Tiger, Ruddles Best and a beer from Northumbrian Brewery. The pub is a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular.
I regard this as one of York's must visit pubs, for its unspoilt interior and atmosphere, but watch out for the late afternoon opening times from Monday to Friday
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Just awarded "best overall pub in York"...and is now listed grade ll status.
Thoroughly deserved...Well done Linda and Fozz.
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Indeed a gem with the best garden in York. Good range of ales, including Landlord and rotating guest from the likes of Great Newsome, Northumberland, Goose Eye, Oldershaw and York.
Opens 5 through the week and mid-day weekends. No Food...but, sandwiches on Rugby international days! Splendid, home-cooked, free finger buffets appear fairly regularly though.
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Great local boozer with part-covered beer garden. Decent ales - Ruddles, Pedigree, Landlord / Deuchars.
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Paid another visit to this, one of York's finest historic gems, and good to see nothing has changed and bar billiards still in operation.
Was also pleased to see the excellent York Guzzler on offer alongside the bigger names that are usually on offer-hopefully more to come?
A must visit for any pub lover visiting York.
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One word...bar billiard! Awesome pub, with BBQ hire out the back.
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Lovely pub with many rooms and was packed when we called in one evening. The garden was well decorated for Christmas and was nice to walk through to the toilets. Beer range could be better, but we found nothing wrong with the Everards Tiger and Theakstons Mild.
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Great little back street pub in a residential area.
Unspoilt by modern day living.
Always worth a visit when in York.
Good choice of Real Ales and good choice of rooms to drink them in.
Good beer garden if only it would stop raining.
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This pub is in a quiet, residential street south-west of the city centre. It has an impressive glazed tile exterior which incorporates the pub name in the fascia. As you enter the pub you find yourself in a corridor with more glazed tiling, you follow this around to the right passing a small snug with a counter to reach the main bar, oddly placed farthest from the entrance.
Seven pumps, again playing it safe: Tiger, Deuchars, John Smiths, Bombardier and Ruddles. My pint of Tiger was rather bland.
There are two further rooms, the one I sat in looked like it had been refurbished fairly recently, with a new carpet and new furniture. It has a fireplace and retains the original bell pushes. There is also a beer garden.
This is a wonderfully unspoilt pub, and well worth a visit. With a more imaginative beer selection it would be an excellent pub.
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Quite simply one of the best pubs I have ever been to. I have heard rumours its future is uncertain (apologies if this is not the case) - if you value excellent traditional pubs serving great real ale please support it. Classic York pub with unspoiled interior.
If you go to the Swan and Ackhorne in the same night you will have a great experience.
I live in London now but always go to this pub when back in York. No pub in my area of west London comes anywhere near the Golden Ball for quality. Sit back and enjoy...
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Back street local with a superb intact 1930s interior, six pulls with John Smiths Cask, it is their pub after all, plus guest ales; all I tried were in fine condition. Several rooms with a bar billiards table in one. Good local atmosphere, friendly staff and customers of various ages. A gem in the less fashionable south west area of the walled city.
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great pub, of the beaten tracken in a lovely part of york.
The pub has a classic interior, feels like a proper pub and has a nice beer garden
the beer is superb with an ever changing range, its near the swan and akthorne to.
it doenst get the same knobs that other york pubs attract and and sells seabrookes crisps
what more is there to say....
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Have visited this pub on and off over the years. The pub itself is lovely and has a lot of potential; a little tired on the inside but lovely beer garden, especially on those rare sunny days. The welcome is a bit hit and miss depending on how many units the current tenants have had! Buying them a drink doesn�t help though and never expect one in return! It�s been said that you can go there for years and not get so much as a hello! The beer is well kept and the place is clean. I can confirm the same band plays there every week and they are to every ones taste.
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Great backstreet pub with several drinking areas and outside loos. Classic interior.
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Possibly my favourite pub in York. It feels more like somebody's house than a pub, and a bonny one at that. The interior is interwar, with a snug, vault, and 3 seperate, differently decorated rooms (all splendidly traditional) on different sides of the building, as well as a traditional outdoor toilet and very pleasant, enclosed beer garden. For this it is deservedly on CAMRA's National Inventory of unspoilt pub interiors.
Not too many tourists in here as it is off the tourist trail, but still only a 2 minute walk from the famous City Walls-well worth walking in their own right. Pickled onions available at the bar as well as a choice of 4-5 ales. Eternally fascinating bar billiards available for 50p a go- but to address the previous comment, it isn't the only table in Yorkshire as there is one in the Marton arms near Ingleton. Note that the pub is not always open during the daytime.
Not too far from The Swan and the Ackhorne, two other gems in this city of excellent pubs.
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A handsome backstreet local with several rooms. The beer was very well kept and tasty but the chap behind the bar, who I took to be the landlord, was chilly. He blanked the chap at the bar trying to pass the time of day although the pub was nearly empty. It surprises me that with pubs struggling for trade in the current economic climate the landlords don't make a bit of effort to raise a smile and welcome custom. Perhaps they just like the peace and quiet of empty pubs.
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York is well blessed with pubs on the CAMRA national inventory of historic pub interiors. The Golden Ball isn't as grandiose as some on the inventory but its the sort of pub I wish was on my street corner!!Glazed external brickwork, interesting internal layout with tiling on the walls and bar and a good selection of hand pulled ales. Away from the city centre, set amongst a quiet block of old terraces. Seemed to be very much a locals pub(and long may it remain so).(I stayed in a B&B just up Bisopthorpe road and the area is fine.)
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Apart from the beer there is really nothing else to commend it. The decor and welcome are both cold and uninviting. No food. Not suitable for children. I hear the same 2 musicians have been playing there every week for years and you can't hear yourself think when they are playing. Not a particularly nice area of York - surrounded by miserable social housing and 2 up 2 downs. A better pub nearby is the White Swan on Bishopthorpe Road - it has good beer and atmosphere.
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Well away from the chock-fulla-tourists centre but well worth seeking out. The pickled eggs are made by the landlady and the best `I have had, even better than the those made by the the last landlord at the Ackhorne. Welcome faultless and beer very good and a lot cheaper than the Ackhorne.
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Absolutely top pint of Bombardier (�2.50)...varied selection at the bar....very welcoming traditional locals pub-just keep walking-when you get to the Ackhorne (off Micklegate).
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Lovely comfortable multiroomed pub serving good real ale.
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Popped into the ball again last night. Had another great pint, and sat in the room next to the main bar. This room now appears to be no smoking, which is nice (not sure if this is a new thing or has always been?).
Also there was some good live music on, and the outside seating was packed. It just made me think that I don't visit this place enough, because its off the beaten track.
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Unbearably smoky at times but still one of York's best. I've never had a bad pint here in thirty years of drinking. Plenty of choice for ale buffs, and comfortable rooms.
Popular with football fans whenever there's a big match on the television, but they politely make way at the bar if they can see you need a drink, unlike some other York pubs I can think of ....
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Last night I attended the Local Camra meeting and was made very welcome so I thankyou, tried a pint of Tiger at �2.25 and Mowbray Mash at �2.20 both spot on. Lovely beer garden and cosy little pub, try it and prove me wrong.
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Excellent pub. Dark, gloomy and down to earth in true English style with outside toilets, but with lots of seating in three different rooms, friendly staff, a gorgeous beer garden, and possibly the only bar billiards table in Yorkshire.
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If this is the pub I'm thinking of it's great and I'm loathe to recommend it as it was really nice and quiet when I visited. It's got bar billiards and a incredibly polite barman/landlord who refused to ridicule me even when I pronounced Bombardier as if I were French (Bombar-dee-ay) in a moment of utter madness.
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This is a really nice, small but friendly local pub, on the outskirts of the city centre. Has a nice choice of 3-4 real ales on usually, and also has its own beer festival once a year. This together with a pleasant outside seeting area, and a quiet, comfortable inside make it a really pleasant place for a drink.
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Nice pub. Although the beer selection is not the best, the pub is classic and friendly. Aparently opens from 4 pm.
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