Why do we celebrate Bonfire Night?
We light fires every 5 November because a plot to blow up King James I in 1605 failed, and the country has been celebrating that near miss ever since. This year the night falls on Thursday 5 November, a midweek fireworks evening just as the dark closes in properly at teatime. Below is the story, from the plotters and their tavern meetings to the bonfire societies of Sussex, followed by the food and warming drinks that belong to the night, and three Bristol pubs that each catch a strand of it: one old enough to remember the plot, one built around cider, and one with a fire to thaw beside.
Guy Fawkes Night history: the Gunpowder Plot in brief
The plot was led by Robert Catesby, a Catholic gentleman frustrated that James I had not eased the persecution of Catholics. His small group of conspirators hired a cellar beneath the House of Lords and filled it with barrels of gunpowder, intending to blow up the king at the State Opening of Parliament.
An anonymous letter warning Lord Monteagle to stay away gave the game up. Late on 4 November, searchers found Guy Fawkes, a Yorkshire-born soldier, guarding the powder. Londoners lit bonfires that very night to celebrate the king's survival, and in 1606 Parliament passed the Observance of 5th November Act, making an annual day of thanksgiving official. The Act was repealed in 1859, but by then the habit of fires, fireworks and effigies was far too ingrained to fade.
Taverns, plotters and the pub connection
Inns were the natural meeting rooms of the early 1600s, and the plot has its share of tavern lore. Tradition holds that the conspirators first gathered at the Duck and Drake, an inn off the Strand, in 1604, and that others waited for news at an inn at Dunchurch in Warwickshire as the plan unravelled. Treat these as long-told stories rather than courtroom fact; the records are patchy, and pub lore has a way of growing with every retelling.
What is certain is that, over the centuries, the local became part of the night itself: somewhere to meet before the bonfire, to rattle a tin for it, and to thaw out once the embers were dying. And if you fancy a pint somewhere of exactly the right vintage, Bristol has a pub dated to the very year the thanksgiving law was passed.
The Hatchet Inn - JW Bassett Pub
Redcliffe, Bristol
Best for: drinking in a building from the plot's own era. The Hatchet dates back to 1606, the year after Fawkes was caught in that cellar, and it is described as Bristol's oldest pub. Nobody has tied it to the plotters, and we won't pretend otherwise, but it is a genuine contemporary of the age that gave us Bonfire Night, and its Tudor-style character on Frogmore Street makes that history feel within touching distance. The old bones come with a louder streak: climb the stairs and the upstairs bar is given over to live music, rock and heavy metal nights included, which makes for a fine clash of centuries. Downstairs it's cask ales, craft beers and guest pours. The real draw on a Thursday fireworks night is that it keeps going until midnight, so the last rocket needn't mean the last round. Check the pub's page for what's on upstairs.
Bonfire societies and local customs
Nowhere takes the night more seriously than Sussex. Lewes is famous for its bonfire societies, groups that spend much of the year planning torchlit processions, flaming tar barrels and enormous effigies. The town's celebrations also remember the Protestant martyrs burned there in the 1550s, which is why the mood is far more pointed than a council fireworks display. Other Sussex towns and villages run societies of their own, often turning out for each other's processions through the autumn.
Elsewhere the customs shift. Children once wheeled home-made Guys around the streets asking for "a penny for the Guy" to fund their fireworks, a habit you rarely see now. Parts of Yorkshire still call it Plot Night. In Ottery St Mary in Devon, locals carry burning tar barrels through the streets. Dates and formats change from year to year, so look up the local organisers rather than assuming.
Bonfire Night drinks: what keeps you warm
Standing in a cold field for an hour calls for something with heat or heft. Mulled wine and mulled cider, warmed with spices and citrus, are the classic flask-and-stall drinks. A hot toddy (whisky, honey, lemon and hot water) is the fireside option. And for plenty of us, the right answer is simply a pint of real ale, ideally in front of a fire once the last rocket has gone up.
Cider has a special claim on the season, arriving straight off the autumn apple harvest, and it's worth tasting the proper stuff before it disappears into a pan of cinnamon and cloves.
The Apple
Redcliffe, Bristol
Best for: cider lovers. Bristol's self-styled "legendary Cider Boat" is a converted Dutch barge moored on Welsh Back in the Old City harbourside, and cider is its whole reason for being. There are around 40 on at any one time, mostly farmhouse ciders and perries from West Country and small local makers, on a menu that runs from sweet to dry. That is the point on Bonfire Night: a chance to taste the harvest mulled cider is made from, before the spices get to it. The house pour, Old Bristolian, is listed at 8.4%, so treat it with respect if there's a display still to come. There's a bar on the lower deck below the waterline and another out by the harbour, with the cobbled quayside where crowds spill out on busy weekends. On a cold November night, a bracing half beside the water before ducking below deck feels about right. We have no information on mulled or hot drinks here, so don't assume them.
Inn on the Green
Horfield, Bristol
Best for: thawing out by a real fire. Up on Filton Road in Horfield, a short walk from Gloucester Road, the Inn on the Green leans country-style, and its open fireplace and sofas are exactly what you want after an hour of watching fireworks with numb fingers. Settle in with something from its broad real ale range and you have the pint-by-the-hearth finish that a cold 5 November deserves. It's a relaxed, family-friendly room with space for bigger groups, so it suits a crowd coming in from a local display; book ahead if you're arriving en masse, and check the pub's page for current hours.
Traditional Bonfire Night food
The food of 5 November is regional, cheap and designed to be eaten with gloves on. In Yorkshire and Lancashire, parkin, a sticky oat and treacle cake, is the signature bake, often made days ahead so it softens. Bonfire toffee, a brittle black treacle slab, is another northern staple, broken up with a toffee hammer or the back of a spoon.
Toffee apples are the national favourite, glossy red and murder on your fillings. Jacket potatoes were traditionally wrapped in foil and pushed into the embers, while sausages, in buns or on sticks, round things off. These are the home and street-stall traditions the night is built on, rather than anything you should expect to find on a pub menu.
Making a pub part of your Bonfire Night
Because 5 November falls on a Thursday, many people will head to a display after work and want a pint either side. A few practical points:
- Hours can change around events, so confirm on the pub's own page on the night rather than relying on memory.
- Book if you're a group; post-fireworks crowds arrive all at once.
- All three pubs here welcome dogs, but fireworks unsettle many of them. On this particular night, a quiet evening at home may suit your dog better than a pub near a display.
- We haven't listed any pub as hosting Bonfire Night events; don't assume fireworks or bonfires on site.
Quick reference: which pub for which need
- Drink in a building from the Gunpowder Plot era: The Hatchet Inn, dated to 1606
- Explore the cider behind the mulled stuff: The Apple, around 40 farmhouse ciders
- Warm up by an open fire with a real ale: Inn on the Green
- Stay out late after the fireworks: The Hatchet Inn, open until midnight on a Thursday
- Bring the family after a display: Inn on the Green, with its relaxed, family-friendly room
For more on how old pubs carry their history, see our piece on London's most stunning pub interiors.
