The Lawrence Arms, Southsea

The Lawrence was busy with a friendly local crowd during a recent Friday afternoon visit. The L shaped bar supports a standard and premium keg range and six hand pumps. The only ale I had heard of was the Harveys Best which is my local beer. Lots of old pump clips on the walls suggests an ever-changing selection of cask ales. I didn’t see any sign of hot food being advertised. To the left of the bar is a dartboard and at the rear is a pool table which is free to play on Mondays. I counted three plasma screens for showing live sport in the bar area and a jukebox. Out the back is a concreted beer garden with picnic tables. This is a proper local pub which I will revisit when next in Southsea.

After a stint visiting some of the newer bar and kitchen establishments Southsea now offers on the recent Pubs Galore crawl it was good to get back to a traditional corner Free house of some standing and the Lawrence Arms delivered in spades. Now one connected internal space around the L shaped bar, it still retains a public and lounge bar feel with a posher carpeted section with traditional banquette and table seating and then a slightly divided wooden floored section housing a pool table and dart board. The bar top supports a row of six hand pumps each with a small jam jar in front showing the colour of the beer. Harvey's Sussex Best is the permanent house ale and then for our visit Frome RA American Pale Ale, Bank Top Brewery Port of Call, Irving Iron Duke, Gadds Black Pearl Oyster Stout and Mad Squirrel Big Sea IPA were on the others. I went for the stout and it was in top condition.

This is a former Whitbread house, as evinced by the metal ellipse above the pub sign. To be honest I can’t really remember this pub, not due to amount of research carried out but perhaps because it wasn’t that memorable but judging by the high marks bestowed, perhaps I was more researched than I thought. I do recall having a half of the R A American Pale Ale for which I paid the sum of just £1.80 and noted that it was ‘good’. It seems that I would have no objection to coming here again.