A few beers in Winchester

One of the best social activities your local CAMRA branch engage in from time to time is the pub crawl. We certainly don't visit every pub in an area but, using the Good Beer guide, we ensure that only the best beer is sampled. We have recently visited Bath, Salisbury, Weymouth, Sheffield, Southampton, Southsea and, of course, Poole. In the spirit of this, 19th August, we ventured up the railway line to Winchester. I have passed through (not out? ED) loads of times and I can vaguely remember trying to find the cathedral once, but I had never visited any of the pubs: more fool me!

The first pub we tried was a quiet back street community local with a glazed tile frontage called The Fulflood Arms. A comfortable pub, with bar billiards table, two Greene King Ales along with a guest, the lovely Tribute from St Austell brewery, were served by a very friendly and welcoming landlady.

The next pub was the St James Tavern, only quarter of a mile away on Romsey Road (though up a fairly steep hill I seem to recall, ED), a Wadworth house selling their range plus Butcombe Bitter as guest. The bar has plenty of tables, a good food menu, lofty ceilings and light wood panelling throughout. Leaving by the side street, crossing the railway line and walking down the old town roads we reached The Wykeham Arms near the old city Kingsgate. This is a many roomed, rambling pub with bric-a-brac everywhere and claiming to house 2000 pewter mugs. Formerly a Gales pub (Sob! ED), it is now of course owned by Fullers who seem to have matched the recipes well but the pump clips still claim the beers are brewed by Gales (Fullers did say they wouldn’t mislead people).

Passing the college and walking around the back of the cathedral we visited The Black Boy, a really amazing pub. Several completely different rooms house random artefacts, anything from a range of fire buckets, a huge old clock, bookcases, electric meters, enamel signs and a life size stuffed donkey etc etc (you really have to visit to appreciate it all). There is also a superb range of beers: Hopback Summer Lightning, Itchen Valley Pure Gold and Hidden Pint. We had a sample of all as we enjoyed a well earned snack.

Next was another Fullers house overlooking the Itchen river. The Bishop on the Bridge is spacious visited by swans, ducks and tourists in equal measure. Good beer was had by all and at least the Gales beers had the correct pump clips. After a lovely mile long walk down a tow path we visited The Bell on the outskirts of Winchester. This is a Greene King house with a real village feel. Their summer beer, Ale Fresco, was very nice. By this time we were lazy/tired/pissed (who us, never, ED!) so we took the bus back to town and stopped into The Exchange. There were two beers, Brakspear bitter and the wonderful Summer Lightning. This was a footy-friendly boozer where the outside water feature kept the urinal busy. Walking up Hyde Street we then visited The Hyde Tavern, another Greene King pub which is a classic medieval, timber framed building below street level. They served an unusual Belhaven Fruit Beer which was quite pleasant.

Just one more pub, phew! The Albion is right next to the station, and we found this a good place to have a last pint before catching the train. The choice was between Taylor’s Landlord, Youngs’ London Pride or Ringwood Best, all very good. And so to the train home, and we even managed to stay awake on the journey home somehow. So raise a glass to the pubs of Winchester, preferably in one of them!
Cheers, Robin Garrett