EBG Rating: 8.1/10

Choice/Quality of Drinks:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
An above average range of draft beers for the city, more importantly well-poured and looked after. A broad back bar of alternatives befitting the all-rounder status of the pub.

Style/Décor:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Beautiful bespoke wood-fit interior with a mock copper kettle bar and curved seating with smooth varnished wood, well-worn in. Simple tables in the small bar room with some appropriate retro signage. The main pub room has a curved window, relatively unusual for Germany, with bespoke wood fit booths and niches that have been designed especially for the space and well preserved. Both genteel and legitimately a work of impressive craftsmanship.

Atmosphere/Character:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
A pub that is versatile enough to imagine old blokes holding forth at the bar, a romantic dinner, card games, family get togethers all in the same place without spoiling anyone’s evening and without becoming overly bland.

Amenities/Events:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Food, snacks, outdoor seating.

Value For Money:
❤️❤️❤️
Typical prices for the area.

Description:
In 2023 rumours were going around that Die Glocke (The Bell) a 120 year old pub was due to close on account of the landlord refusing to extend the lease. There followed a community campaign to save the pub, but they were not expecting the news that the building had been purchased by a local entrepreneur, who then leased the pub to the existing operation. Glad news in uncertain times.

Glocke’s preservation was apparently inspired as the new owner regards it as an indispensable fixture of the local community and city as a whole, though the purchase would have run well above 1.5 million euros.

At the time of writing Glocke feels above such turbulence; its atmospheric, wood-fit interior of smooth curves, lamps and booths a genteel, likeable, stylish but low-key premises.

These days, it’s also something of an outlier. you won’t find the road or surrounding area peppered with pubs. This is a wealthy district of the city with townhouses and mansions that provide quite the contrast to the likes of St. Pauli. Hamburg has money, alright, if you know where to find it.

This inevitably makes Die Glocke more of an all-rounder than any kind of gritty old boot, but the operation suits that.

You’ll find a compact pub-room that definitely allows space for drink and socialising, with bespoke high tables and bench seating designed for association rather than just dining. In the main room, a typical genteel Gaststätte with seating around its curved outline.

All sorts happens here – games, meals, romantic get-togethers, events and casual encounters without ever feeling like a clash, something many pubs and bars could learn a lot from.

(Added August 2025)