City Gate Hotel, The

The City Gate Hotel, close to Exeter Cathedral and handy for both Exeter Central and Exeter St Davids stations, reopened in 2003 after being lovingly restored by Young’s, the London brewers.

It has 15 air-conditioned, three-star bedrooms, both doubles and twins, and like the rest of Young’s 23 hotels across the South of England, it operates alongside a traditional English pub as a refreshing contrast to the stuffy cocktail bars of many city hotels.

Besides the main bar, which is divided into three separate areas, the City Gate has a new conservatory and a beautiful functions room. The paved and decked garden, bounded on one side by the well preserved remains of the Roman city wall, has a bar of its own. The cellar bar, which has also been carefully renovated, has bare brick and stone walls, one of them formed from the lower section of the Roman wall.

The City Gate serves a full range of home-cooked meals as well as Young’s award-winning real ales, lagers and stout, and an imaginative selection of high-quality wines.

• Main Details