The Florence Arms, Southsea

Official site of The Florence Arms - www.theflorencearmssouthsea.co.uk

Official site of The Florence Arms - www.theflorencearmssouthsea.co.uk

This GBG regular was highly disappointing. The splendid building currently houses a business which is highly pretentious, a back street pub trying to be an up-market bar and failing miserably. The ground floor has been knocked through into a single large bar, rambling but reduced in character through the use of tasteless, badly chosen flooring and truly awful music. There is a pool table at the less pretentious end of the bar. One male member of the bar staff need a serious attitude adjustment, while a different staff member was much easier on the [middle-aged male] eye and ear. No wifi was available. The pub is dog friendly. Food was available but priced way above its class. There were only 2 ales on, neither of which was very inspiring given the pub's reputation for good beer. The clientele consisted of a mix of CAMRA members, trendypseuds and normal humans, so it wasn't all bad. They run regular 'theme' evenings, though this was just another way of saying that they sell burgers on Mondays, sausages and Tuesdays, fish and chips on Fridays and so on. The real saving grace was an excellent selection of draft cider: I had a pint of Rosie's Pig which really was very good. The beer and cider make it well worth seeking out and including in a crawl, and I shall continue to drop in occasionally in the hope that things improve.

I am going to be biased about the Flo as I am The landlady here great atmosphere as still a local pub in 2011 we will be up to 100 cider varieties, winner of CAMRA 2010 cider award for south and channel islands 4 real ales always one local Spitfire, Adnams bitter and broadside great selection of wines and wonderful food sister pub to The Golden Lion in Southwick. Theatre productions, spoken word, acoustic music, jazz and blues at certain times in the function/dining room