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Cameron's Pub and Inn entices with a monster pumpkin.
Cameron's Pub and Inn entices with a monster pumpkin.

English Pub With Double Decker Bus, Giant Pumpkin

Field review by the editors.

Half Moon Bay, California

The sun never sets on British-style pubs where you can get your fix of bangers and mash and a pint.

Ye Olde Stocks and the British Lion.
Ye Olde Stocks and the British Lion.

A union jack flag flutters along the California coast at the intensely British-themed Cameron's Pub. Outside there's a London double-decker bus and taxi, a red phone booth, a stocks and pillory, and other touches of England. A British lion quaffs a pint.

The bus is open for exploration as the World's Only Double Decker Smoking Bus.

Owner Cameron Palmer, the son of a Scotsman, continues to add garish touches of fantasy England to his family attraction. As a kid growing up in the U.S., he accumulated thousands of (empty) beer cans of every brand and label. The 20,000+ collection is stacked and displayed over the bar (recognized as the "Largest Collection of Beer Cans in a Pub," we are told by the barkeep).

The 100-year-old building housing the inn has its own colorful history, including stints as a brothel and site of a couple of sordid murders in the 1930s. Cameron's maintains a few rooms above the pub for overnight guests -- in this case, B&B stands for Bed and Beverage, because they "don't do breakfast." When we visited, Palmer was in the middle of adding a larger/normal hotel on the property adjacent to the pub.

Cameron's 2,000+ beer can collection.
Cameron's 2,000+ beer can collection.

Half Moon Bay conducts an annual Pumpkin Festival, which might explain the incongruity of a giant pumpkin beneath the sign for Cameron's Inn. It's a record-breaker too; at over 5 tons, it's the World's Largest Sculpted Pumpkin, created by Peter Hazel, according to the accompanying sign.

English Pub With Double Decker Bus, Giant Pumpkin

Cameron's British Pub

Address:
1410 Cabrillo Hwy., Half Moon Bay, CA
Directions:
Cameron's British Pub, south of town on west side of Hwy 1 at Wavecrest Rd.
Phone:
650-726-5705
RA Rates:
Worth a Detour
Save to My Sights

Nearby Offbeat Places

Half Moon Bay Jail MuseumHalf Moon Bay Jail Museum, Half Moon Bay, CA - 1 mi.
Dinosaurs of Spanish TownDinosaurs of Spanish Town, Half Moon Bay, CA - 2 mi.
Pumpkin Farm, Labyrinth, Gladiator BattlesPumpkin Farm, Labyrinth, Gladiator Battles, Half Moon Bay, CA - 5 mi.
In the region:
Sleeping Hotel Giantess, San Francisco, CA - 23 mi.

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