Grief this is feeling like a long old haul. Nearly there though.
Next stop was the Queen, a real outlier that takes you through the attractive streets south of the Cathedral.
Goodness know how we made it past the Wykeham without a stop there, but no doubt the Pride was drinking well without our help.
it’s a suburban pub, but rather more upmarket than you might find in Cambridge (if we had any suburban pubs left).
So why is this one in the Guide when the Spoons isn’t ?
Ah, lots of beers on stillage. We had the Flowerpots and Itchen Valley, which were the very definition of OK (NBSS 3). I thought they were fine, anyway, but Mrs RM berated me for making us leave the Overdraft. “I’m a townie” she declared, as if the Queen was a rural Old Boys pub, rather than the smart end of city dining pub it is.
She did at least find the only spare table, a high table., and was gripped by the man at the bar wearing flowery shorts, the only person worse dressed than us.
I was more struck by folk wearing suits and peaky blinder caps. What is this madness ? And can it be confined to Winchester, please ?
On the way back, I stopped to take photos of pub windows. That didn’t go down well.
The night should have ended there, but it never does, does it ?
Not when there’s a Wetherspoons with people spilling out of it. And half of Winchester’s under-25s in it.
Some of you will no doubt want to know what the real ales were.
While other are more interested in the uniquely calming atmosphere of the English public house. These are for you.
You should have seen the ones Mrs RM banned.
Oh yes, she had a double G & T, I had 3 flat whites.
retiredmartin 
How much did you spend on the G&T?
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About £4- nothing too much for Mrs RM !
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Much better than some of the shockers in the past.
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Liked The Queen Inn when I visited last January, not bad at all for a GK pub, from there walked to The Black Boy circumnavigating the river, a hell of a walk in the freezing weather, had I headed back toward the spoons, I can guarantee I wouldn’t get past the Overdraft,(until I got to either The Hyde Tavern or Albion that is).
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Just trying to remember which ‘Spoons branch recently had an ale called “Top Totty”.
Are you going to start a blog on the Dark Net so we can view the photographs that Mrs RM banned ?
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I’ll let Mrs RM hawk them to the highest bidder. Is the dark web that thing you visit when buying tickets for Man Utd ?
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Isn’t the dark web where Mrs. RM posts pictures of you?
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Your “Recent Comments” column, updating ever one or two minutes, reminds me of the Nottinghamshire v Lancashire scorecard today, when eighteen wickets fell in the morning session.
Are you on commission ?
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The same happens to me. No comments at all, then eight appear at once. I guess this is what it was like when we used telegrams. That Lancs game was bizarre, semi-legal pitch I’d guess..
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That was a strange result. Just like the Kent/Glos game at Canterbury. Another iffy pitch perhaps. At least my beloved Gloucestershire won.
Oh yes, this a pub blog. I wouldn’t go in that Spoons again if I were you.
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Repeat after me: THIS IS NOT A PUB BLOG. This is the diary of a man who goes is a lot of pubs, that’s all.
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“I wouldn’t go in that Spoons again if I were you”.
Whereas most of us are thinking “Best get to that branch as soon as possible”.
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I’m with you Fred. I strongly suspect we will be back there as soon as the new GBG is out 😉
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I think I would head to The Hyde!
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The Queen was quite near to where I stayed in Winchester. However, back then (September 2012) it didn’t strike me as particularly upmarket – an interwars pub with a rather messy interior with, I remember, piles of magazines lying about.
One of the pubs sold by Marston’s to Greene King in the 1990s, before the W&D takeover that turned them into a national pub operator. I bet they regret that now, as it included some prime pub real estate. Winchester has seen quite a lot of mass changes of pub ownership, as the Fuller’s pubs in the city, like the Wykeham Arms, were previously owned by Eldridge Pope.
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It had certainly had a makeover in the usual GK style but It’s possible the pubgoers were smarter than the pub.
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Mudgie, any chance you stayed at the Gifford Hotel?
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“Looks deserted – they’re all in the pub”
I notice the sandwich board (sign board?) indicates ‘Parchment Street’. Is that the UK equivalent of those kung fu guys walking on rice paper without leaving footprints? 😉
“Queen Inn”
Lovely entrance.
“The dark one is GK IPA”
Is it scary that I knew that just by looking at it?
“What is this madness ?”
It could be (just like Game of Thrones) there are no new episodes this year. So maybe they’re appeasing the Telly Gods by walking around in costume. 🙂
“A debate about Spoons discontinuation of social media rages”
Again, what’s with everyone wearing nowt but black and grey?
“Unusual dispense system”
I shouldn’t but… “Phew! I had to lie down for three days for them to get that made correctly” 🙂
Cheers!
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Oh, Russ. It just had to be you, didn’t it ?
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I can’t believe that seventeen comments on I’m the first person to mention the enormous blow up cock on the table! The elephant in the room so to speak…even Russ missed it 😵 clearly the readership on your blog is of the highest calibre 😉
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What enormous blow up cock on the table ? I’m vehemently against animals, even plastic ones, on pub tables.
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“even Russ missed it 😵”
Oight! (points upward)
Ahem, see my comment after “unusual dispense system” 😉
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Don’t you mean life sized? 😉
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Of course! 😀
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Ah Winchester. A rare southern outpost, along with Southampton for plenty of reliable “old” Marston’s pubs during my early beer drinking career. A lot have since been ruined by their subsequent owners, mainly by GK.
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