Robert Powell, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Eat and drink · Kemble
The Thames Head Inn
A pub serving Arkell's beers on the A433 between Cirencester and Tetbury, a short walk from the source of the Thames, open all day with food from 11am, four rooms and a campsite.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
The pub for the source of the Thames: open all day, food from 11am, fires and a big garden. Dogs are welcome in the bar if you say when you book.
- Good: Open all day every day, food from 11am
- Good: Open fires and landscaped gardens
- Good: Dogs welcome in the bar; tell them when you book
- Good: Four en-suite rooms and a campsite
- Worth knowing: On the A433, a busy road; take care walking from the source
- Worth knowing: Closed from 3pm on Christmas Eve to New Year's Day
About
The Thames Head Inn is a pub serving Arkell's beers on the A433, 2.8 miles from Cirencester and 5.7 miles from Tetbury, and it takes its name from Thames Head, the spring in the field across the road where the Thames Path begins. It is open all day, every day.
Inside, a large central bar has nooks round it and open fires; outside there are landscaped gardens and plenty of parking. The kitchen serves from 11am to 8.30pm, and from noon on Sundays, with a restaurant menu and a bar menu: soup, pâté and garlic mushrooms, then pies, bangers and mash, fish and chips and bubble and squeak, most of them about £18 when we checked in October 2026 and steaks up to about £30, with sandwiches and jacket potatoes for a lighter lunch.
Dogs are welcome in the bar; tell the pub when you book. There are four en-suite bed and breakfast rooms in a converted barn at the back, with check-in from 2pm and check-out by 10.30am; dogs stay only by prior arrangement. The caravan and camping site, booked through Pitchup, has 12 hard-standing pitches with electric hook-ups and is dog friendly too.
Come on foot if you can. From Kemble station, the footpath north-west across the fields reaches the stone at Thames Head in about a mile and a half, and the pub is a short walk from there; the Thames Path then runs 185 miles to the Thames Barrier at Woolwich. The spring by the stone is often dry, especially in summer. The pub closes from 3pm on Christmas Eve until 11am on New Year's Day.
Opening hours and season
Food served
| Monday | 11:00 to 20:30 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 11:00 to 20:30 |
| Wednesday | 11:00 to 20:30 |
| Thursday | 11:00 to 20:30 |
| Friday | 11:00 to 20:30 |
| Saturday | 11:00 to 20:30 |
| Sunday | 12:00 to 20:30 |
Open all day every day. Closed from 3pm on Christmas Eve until 11am on New Year's Day.
The details
- Food
- Pub classics
- Serving
- Lunch · Dinner · Sunday lunch
- Dietary
- Vegetarian dishes
- Rooms
- 4
- Features
- Garden or terrace · Open fire · Real ale · Bar · Restaurant · Parking · Wi-Fi · Dogs inside
Photos
The bar 
By the fire 
The dining room 
A bedroom
Location
Places to stay nearby
-
The Thames Head Inn
Pubs · Kemble
A pub serving Arkell's beers on the A433 between Cirencester and Tetbury, a short walk from the source of the Thames, open all day with food from 11am, four rooms and a campsite.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
-
The King's Head
Hotel · Cirencester
A former coaching inn on Cirencester's Market Place with 63 bedrooms, one of Brakspear's Honeycomb Houses, open from 7am daily, with dog-friendly dining.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
-
The Cottage
Self-catering · Cirencester
A Grade II listed two-bedroom holiday cottage for up to four adults, a seven-minute walk from the middle of Cirencester, with a courtyard garden and parking for one car; Plum Guide lists it as Honey Pot Cottage.
Verified Oct 2026
Nearby walks, places and things to do
- The Tavern Inn, Kemble 1.6 km away
- Cirencester Roman Amphitheatre 4.0 km away
- Rodmarton Manor 4.5 km away
- Igloo 4.6 km away
Sights nearby
-
Pope's Seat, Cirencester Park
Sight · Historic building · Cirencester
A small stone pavilion of the early eighteenth century at Seven Rides in Cirencester Park, with a Doric portico and POPE'S SEAT cut in its pediment, named after the poet who helped Lord Bathurst lay out the park. Grade II*; a park day pass is needed.
-
Cirencester Park
Sight · Common or park · Cirencester
The Bathurst family's landscape park on the western edge of Cirencester, planted from 1714 by the first Earl Bathurst with Alexander Pope: 8km of rides and woods along the Broad Ride, with Pope's Seat and Alfred's Hall. Grade I registered; a day pass is needed.
-
St John the Baptist, Cirencester
Sight · Church · Cirencester
Cirencester's great wool church on the Market Place, free to visit: a fifteenth-century tower you can climb on set Saturdays, a three-storey porch of about 1490 that served as the town hall, fan vaults, medieval glass and the Boleyn Cup. Grade I.