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Detail Pages
The Winchester, N6
N6
N6 5BA
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Winchester
Twelve years to the month since my first and last visit demanded a return the other night to this National Inventory CAMRA listing, which dates from 1881, the name taken from a nearby 17th century mansion, Winchester Hall.
The pub reopened last October having been since 2015. It’s had a makeover to cater for more affluent locals, not the oddballs I encountered 12 years ago; gone too is the stench of cleaning fluid. There’s a chocolate brown all-over colour scheme (which can be seen on CAMRA’s site), dark boarded floor and modern pale wood bar top, but the star is the fantastic etched glass to the entrance vestibules, etched and stained-glass panels and the almost unique etched and cut glass-fronted bar back, which is actually the former counting office. What isn’t so attractive are the ugly downlighters and the hideous exposed galvanised suspended ceiling gantry, which runs right round the pub’s ceiling, from which descend at least two ugly aircon units and projector for the megavision screen; two other screens were showing the football with the sound off, watched by no-one. Perhaps the pub believed it was broadcasting the World Cup, as an A-board was outside still advertising all the action, which ended nearly three weeks ago. Aside from the ugly downlighters, illumination comes from Victorian-style brass and glass chandeliers. Décor comes in the form of a few mixed prints and a large Bass mirror to the left, along with a fine quartet of integrated gilt mirrors advertising the pub’s wares to the right-hand wall; there’s a dining room to the rear and furniture is conventional.
A rather dull ale range amounted to Pride, Sharp’s Atlantic and a rather weedy Leeds Pale Ale at £2.55 a half, not bad and served by a friendly and knowledgeable barman.
This pub isn’t bad and certainly a great improvement on my previous visit, but the ale range is dull and the lack of respect paid to a National Inventory pub through installing an utterly unnecessary gantry for equally unnecessary aircon units, is a crying shame. Perhaps the operators should take a leaf out of the Remarkable Pubs Co’s Salisbury and Boleyn?
On 9th January 2023
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1997 recommendations about 1963 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about The Winchester
I was here for the Man City v Man Utd game at the end of the Premiership season, having scoured most of Highgate searching for a pub that was showing the game and serving real ale. I was pleased to see three ales available here on the six hand pumps: Marstons EPA, Old Speckled Hen and Jennings Cumberland Ale, with other pump clips turned around. Service was friendly and efficient, especially given the number of people sat at the bar watching the football on the three screens. (There was another in a side room.) In between watching the football, my eye was taken by the etched glass everywhere, and the wrought iron above the doors picking out the original name: Winchester Hall Hotel. I wouldn't mind returning here on a non-football night.
On 9th May 2012
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3752 recommendations about 3487 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Winchester
There were four ales on – London Pride, OSH, Bass, and Deuchars IPA. I went for the Deuchars which was OK, and at £3.00 a pint as I recall. Food was on offer during my midweek lunchtime visit, and although I didn’t eat here, the prices seemed reasonable enough. Sarnies were approaching the £4 mark; the all day breakfast was £4 .95, and bangers and mash was £7.95. The pub is on the CAMRA Heritage list, mainly because of its interior fittings, comprising the trademark Victorian etched and cut glass, and especially the elaborately and elegantly glazed office area by the servery. But it’s been largely stripped out into a large one-room pub; it’s bare-boarded, which means that the noise in a classic high ceilinged Victorian pub like this reverberates around the place. There is a dartboard on the left of the room; a TV screen high up on the bar back, which was on but muted during my visit. There are some upholstered benches near the windows, but otherwise furnishings consist of normal tables and chairs.
I think that this is quite a decent pub. Apart from the Victoriana, I wouldn’t say that it’s a must visit pub, but it does have four ales on (or it did during my visit) but it’s certainly worth a visit if you’re in the area.
On 11th November 2010
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about Winchester Hall Tavern
This is a big pub with high ceilings and a huge bar. The barmaid seemed nice enough when I was in there watching some cricket on the small screen Friday afternoon.
The lager was good and I think I'll probably go back again.
On 30th May 2007
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5268 recommendations about 5236 pubs]