York Tap is UK's best pub, says man after 55-year pub crawl

But that’s exactly the view of Rob Cocker, who has visited 12,000 watering holes across the UK as part of a 55-year pub crawl.

In fact, the 73-year-old would even go a step further: it’s the best in the UK, he feels.

He's referring to the York Tap, which opened 13 years ago in what was once Victorian tea rooms.

The York Tap in the railway station (Image: Newsquest) The dad-of-one embarked on his ale-drinking odyssey when he was 18 after becoming bored of visiting his local in Stoke-on-Trent.

Since then, he has caught buses and trains as well as hitched lifts with friends to have a "quick half" in pubs from Oban, Scotland to Land's End, in Cornwall.

Rob will sometimes cross off 14 pubs in one trip and toasted his 12,000th last week at Costello’s Bar in Warrington, Cheshire. 

Rob Cocker, who has visited 12,000 watering holes across the UK as part of a 55-year pub crawl (Image: SWNS) He proudly boasts having drank in every city in England and has frequented every single pub within 20 miles of his home.

Luckily, the retired payroll officer says he has the full support of his wife of 37 years Lynn, 68, who often joins him on his pub crawl, which isn't finished yet.

"I just began travelling a bit further out and trying the different pubs in the area and then by 1971 I was making a note of them all on the back of a fag packet,” he says. "It just spiralled from there and I began keeping diaries as I kept going further afield.”

Rob Cocker (Image: SWNS) He adds: "I've just had my most recent health check and it all came back as clear. It's a lot of ale but I don't go over the top.”

Topping a list of his favourite pubs is the York Tap but Rob admits: "I could list you about 20 or 30 different pubs which could be among my favourites to be honest.”

Praise 'means more than any award', says owner of pub

Jamie Hawksworth, a co-owner of Pivovar which owns the York Tap, says the praise from Rob “means more than any award”, describing him as an “honest punter who probably has more experience than any judge”.

“When we opened people always inferred we were going to be a transient bar, and we never set out to be a transient bar,” Jamie says.

Owner Jamie Hawksworth outside the York Tap in 2011 when it opened (Image: Newsquest) Given its railway station location, he explains, the pub’s “locals are travellers” and he wants everyone to feel at home there. And he hails Rob as an example of this.

“This guy’s favourite boozer is miles away from where he lives. We want people to feel like that when they’re in there, which is a hard thing to do.”

• Read how we reported the York Tap's opening: The York Tap to open soon at York Station

Jamie jokes that the pub – and its wide selection of ales – “captures quite a lot of people”.

Customers have even blamed it for stopping them from exploring York.

“They say, ‘We just went to the Tap then the Maltings and it was time to go home,’ Jamie says. “I feel sad but also honoured.”

“I think people voting with their feet is the best possible result we can have,” he concludes, adding: “I’m massively honoured. York is a bloody good city for its pubs, so this means that we’re part of the York scene.”