Hampshire is nearly conquered for another year, and then I can turn my attention to the funny little island calling from across the Solent.
Winchester (a.k.a. best place to live in the UK) has turned into quite a decent base for us, with a little home for our campervan at No Man’s Land a couple of miles east of town affording a walk into the centre, past cemeteries and public schools, a metaphor for the city.
Actually, we found it very lively on an August Wednesday evening last year, and it was certainly bustling at lunchtime last Tuesday as well.
It’s a patchy place, but the street art is improving. Locals seemed less than impressed with me blocking the alleyways to take photos of graffiti rather than their big church.
Winchester is a good example of the pub-tickers irritation. If we’d had the current Good Beer Guide the same day as London, we’d have been able to visit Alfies and the Eclipse during our visit last year. On the other hand, that would have pushed Mrs RM marginally over the Government drinking limit, and we can’t have that.
In a town centre of OAPs and students, the mobile phone and pasty shops were rather busier than the pubs (just like Cambridge), which is never the best conditions for early weekday beer drinking.
Alfie’s is a cheery café style pub, with service of the “No worries” variety, perhaps because there are no worries in Winchester. The barmaid was singing along to James Bay, which has its pros and cons.
It was very quiet, bar a few ladies who lunch on burgers and diet coke, and the playing of “A little less conversation” seemed entirely appropriate.
So I was entirely surprised to find a quality Good Old Boy, cool and rich (NBSS 3.5), from a tight range.
A pleasant place, with quirky décor in the usual style and wonky tables. The advert for a “BBQ till 3am” revealed the target audience, and it’s probably not old pub tickers.
I’d assumed the name reflected Cilla Black’s historic links with the city (37% of Blind Date contestants came from Winchester), but apparently not so.
The Eclipse (top) is a complete contrast in style to Alfie’s, but sadly no busier. It’s hidden off a street close to the Cathedral, but frankly folk in upmarket towns seem to eat in coffee shops and pizzerias, rather than pubs, these days.
A local beer called Long Dog was ambitiously priced at £2.20 a half, and could have done with extra turnover, but the pub is a little unchanged town gem which the locals probably think a bit scruffy.
The chap at the bar doing the crossword searched for a five letter word meaning “nervous“, and a couple wearing caps came in just to declare “Ooh, scampi fries“, before eventually ordering Heineken. Possibly a future BRAPA classic.
We briefly contemplated the Royal Oak, with it’s claim to antiquity, but you can only have so much Greene King excitement in one week.
retiredmartin 
The Eclipse is a favourite pub of ours, as is the excellent Good Old Boy. The Cheese seller is a shareholder in West Berkshire brewery. 😀
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Love Old Boy, features in quite a few posts 😊
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It’s a shame that Greene King, Marstons and the other big pub companies own so many of these smashing old pubs. Many of which are in lovely places like Winchester. They promise so much, until you enter, only to discover the same old, same old. Both customers and drinking habits. Even in these posh southern enclaves they end up having the feel of a boozer on the forgotten outskirts of some skanky dead end, run down industrial town. This all leaves you wondering where do they hide all the punters when they are not in the pub? Surely they don’t live in all those quaint Wisteria clad country cottages, or in whatever is situated at the ends of all those lengthy, gated, gravelled drives? Dorchester follows very much along these lines.
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Was that other beer in Alfie’s brewed specially for you?
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You’re second person today to say that 😊
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It surely would have been more appropriate to have been Mrs RM’s Porter.
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Dave and I were in Winchester a year ago. We liked both of those pubs. Not being in the 2016 GBG, we visited the Eclipse because of its historic interior. My memory is that the beers were a little tired. We are returning to Winchester this August. Our wives have even agreed to be seen with us!
Either one of those beers could have been brewed for you.
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Yes, “Gold Old Boy” and a beer with a black cat on the pumpclip would have been an agonising choice for me.
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Pint of mix ?
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May see you in Winchester this year then !
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We will also be heading from Deal to Southwold, with pubs on the way! So, yes, in one place or another!
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You won’t be surprised to learn that the Eclipse was my favourite of the pubs I visited in Winchester in September 2012. The beer range was Otter Bitter, Doom Bar and Landlord. I had the Otter, of course.
I noted an “incoherent, shambling old boy called Reg” who was probably one of those for whom a visit to the pub was probably as much as he was now capable of 😥
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Yes, you can enjoy a pub even when the beer isn’t the star turn (no pun intended). The guy at the bar doing the crossword was worth the price of a pint.
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The picture is of the largely forgotten poet Alfred Noyes.
Claims free half of Doom Bar 😛
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If that’s wrong you get a pint!!!
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Mudge is never wrong on matters involving free beer !
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I must apologise, I hadn’t realised he was A Yorkshireman.
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Well done, I had not a clue. Make it a pint of Doom. But where on earth would you find such a rare beer ?
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