York pubs are celebrating after the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) revealed their Good Beer Guide for 2025.
The guide lists 4,500 pubs across the UK for those seeking the nations’ best pints – and 13 of them are in York. The entries are collated by thousands of Camra volunteers.
You can buy the 52nd edition of the best-selling beer and pub guide here for £16.99.
Some of the York entries are city centre favourites, including the Blue Bell on Fossgate, the Market Cat on Jubbergate, the Ackhorne on St Martin’s Lane and the Brew York Beer Hall and Tap Room on Walmgate, showing what a variety of pubs there are.
Community favourites like the Phoenix Inn on George Street, the Golden Ball on Cromwell Road and the Fox on Holgate Road make the cut too.
Neighbours the Rook & Gaskill and Waggon & Horses, both in the guide, mean Lawrence Street is a haven for the real ale fan.
The Slip Inn (Clementhorpe) and the Swan (Bishopgate Street) are yards from each other too and have another thing in common – publican Paul Crossman, who’s also co-founder and chairman of the Campaign For Pubs
The Swan is York Camra’s Pub of the Year this year too.
The York Tap at the station is the perfect stop-off point. And The Maltings, not far away, has been “a must for beer-lovers for 30 years” – which is why it is an ever-present on the Good Beer Guide.
Waggon & Horses posted on X to say, “We’re chuffed to bits to have won a spot in Camra’s real ale bible for 2025.
“Congratulations to all the great York pubs in the guide, we’re proud to be in your company.”
About the Waggon & Horses, the guide says that “Tom and Paulina have recently celebrated their 10-year anniversary as landlords and over the last decade cultivated a well-deserved reputation for an ever-changing rotation of guest beers.”
There are a couple of York pubs that were in the guide in 2024 that have dropped out of it this year, including the Volunteer Arms and the Last Drop Inn, which is under new management after brewer Black Sheep abruptly shut it in June.
Other North Yorkshire pubs that are in the 2025 guide are the Doghouse in Selby, and the Blue Ball and Omni in Malton.
CAMRA chairman Ash Corbett-Collins said: “CAMRA’s mission is to ensure support from the Government as well as tangible legislation to protect pubs in this country.
“By next year’s edition of the Guide, we want to be talking about the beer and pub trade growing with the support of communities and parliament alike.”