Gassy Jack's

39-41 Salisbury Road, Cathays [map]


It's quite the building, this - it doesn't really look like a pub so much as the sort of soul-destroyingly bleak motel you'd find half-way up the M6. We didn't let that put us off though.


Gassy Jack's has been through a variety of redesigns over the past decade or so.

Whereas it was once the destination of choice for the university's women's rugby team when they wanted to down pitchers of lager and put their bras on their heads, it's now attempting to cultivate a more refined class of student drinker.

Largely via the medium of outsize red lampshades.


All sorts of little woody nooks around the place.

The best feature is the balcony though. Many years ago, we received quite a telling off after playing Jenga up there and inadvertently allowing the entire structure topple to the ground floor. Ah, heady days.


It's lost some of its personality and sense of danger since then - you no longer have to worry that a pile of Jenga bricks could land on your head at any given moment - but it remains an inviting student haunt.

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