TOP 100 PUBS – THE COAL EXCHANGE, EMSWORTH

February 2025. Emsworth.

Leaving Emsworth in Hampshire 7 years ago I wrote;

But now I’m back, showing US Dave what a Top 100 pub looks like.

I couldn’t actually remember if it was just that tiling I loved a decade or more back,

but one step into this single roomer with proper fire, low key lunch trade and no music suggests it no one-trick pony.

Dave is either deep in conversation with Mrs RM or contemplating pints of Pride that looked disappointingly flat compared to those in the Kings Arms,

but magically overcame that presentational quirk, like flat Bass often does.

But the real magic was happening around us, a succession of local gentlefolk taking their anointed position around the bar to chat.

One chap had ordered two pints of foamy HSB leaving one, we guessed, for his drinking companion.

Nope. She had wine, it was his pint settling for later.

I had to have that pint of HSB (not his, I’m no thief), and we shared a fresh one between us.

It was marvellous, as close to perfection as I’ll get in February (NBSS 4+).

And that background rumble of chat about daily life ? You can’t score that, or put a symbol for it in the GBG.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

20 thoughts on “TOP 100 PUBS – THE COAL EXCHANGE, EMSWORTH”

  3. Coal Exchange is more appropriate in the (former) industrial Midlands and North.
    It was probably the Corn Exchange until the signwriter had a few too many HSBs in his lunch break.

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      1. Reminds me of the time Quasimodo came home to find Esmerelda with a wok in her hand.
        ” Are we having stir-fry for tea “, he says ?
        ” No ” says she ” I’m just ironing your shirt.

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